Open Water Bodies Research Articles

Parametrization of a lake water dynamics model MLake in the ISBA-CTRIP land surface system (SURFEX v8.1)

Abstract. Lakes are of fundamental importance in the Earth system as they support essential environmental and economic services, such as freshwater supply. Streamflow variability and temporal evolution are impacted by the presence of lakes in the river network; therefore, any change in the lake state can induce a modification of the regional hydrological regime. Despite the importance of the impact of lakes on hydrological fluxes and the water balance, a representation of the mass budget is generally not included in climate models and global-scale hydrological modeling platforms. The goal of this study is to introduce a new lake mass module, MLake (Mass-Lake model), into the river-routing model CTRIP to resolve the specific mass balance of open-water bodies. Based on the inherent CTRIP parameters, the development of the non-calibrated MLake model was introduced to examine the influence of such hydrological buffer areas on global-scale river-routing performance. In the current study, an offline evaluation was performed for four river networks using a set of state-of-the-art quality atmospheric forcings and a combination of in situ and satellite measurements for river discharge and lake level observations. The results reveal a general improvement in CTRIP-simulated discharge and its variability, while also generating realistic lake level variations. MLake produces more realistic streamflows both in terms of daily and seasonal correlation. Excluding the specific case of Lake Victoria having low performances, the mean skill score of Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) is 0.41 while the normalized information contribution (NIC) shows a mean improvement of 0.56 (ranging from 0.15 to 0.94). Streamflow results are spatially scale-dependent, with better scores associated with larger lakes and increased sensitivity to the width of the lake outlet. Regarding lake level variations, results indicate a good agreement between observations and simulations with a mean correlation of 0.56 (ranging from 0.07 to 0.92) which is linked to the capability of the model to retrieve seasonal variations. Discrepancies in the results are mainly explained by the anthropization of the selected lakes, which introduces high-frequency variations in both streamflows and lake levels that degraded the scores. Anthropization effects are prevalent in most of the lakes studied, but they are predominant for Lake Victoria and are the main cause for relatively low statistical scores for the Nile River However, results on the Angara and the Neva rivers also depend on the inherent gap of ISBA-CTRIP process representation, which relies on further development such as the partitioned energy budget between the snow and the canopy over a boreal zone. The study is a first step towards a global coupled land system that will help to qualitatively assess the evolution of future global water resources, leading to improvements in flood risk and drought forecasting.

К вопросу экологического состояния ливневых сточных вод на урбанизированной территории

The article raises the issue of the ecological state of storm wastewater, their technical condition. The issues of assessing the functioning of storm sewers are included in the list of municipal environmental control, which is carried out by the executive authorities in the field of ecology and nature management. The research paper outlines the key problems associated with underfunding of the current work to ensure the efficient operation of storm water. The main categories in the system “treatment facilities – storm drains – collectors” are considered. The traditional stormwater runoff system involves the diversion of surface runoff through open water bodies (e.g. river systems). The main environmental indicators to be achieved during the construction and commissioning of a complex of sewage storm treatment facilities have been analyzed. The analysis of the design indicators showed that a total of 18.9 million m3 of storm water, rainwater runoff and drainage waters are subject to treatment. The measures for the installation of sewage treatment plants, storm sewers will prevent the river Volga from entering of more than 22 thousand tons of suspended solids, including heavy metals and 1.2 thousand tons of oil products. According to the project documentation, the construction of more than 50 facilities will allow upgrading the stormwater drainage system of the city of Volgograd within the framework of the National Project “Ecology”. The conclusions reflected in the article reveal the main reasons for the current situation: inconsistency of repair and restoration work to replace parts, assemblies; insufficient amount of technical re-equipment; inconsistency of the chemical composition of wastewater with the established regulatory environmental indicators; insufficient municipal control of the services responsible for this object; insufficient financial support.

The Influence Of Semiconductor Leds On The Aquatic Environment And The Problems Of Developing Lighting Devices For Fish Industry Based On Them

The paper presents the results of an experimental study of the influence of semiconductor LEDs on the aqueous environment. It has been shown that the use of semiconductor LEDs in fish farming is the preferred source of optical radiation in the development of microorganisms in natural or open bodies of water, in particular, in the growth of functional systems as aquatic plants, fish and their larvae, as well as moderate development of zooplankton, phytoplankton, detritus, which are the natural feed base of fish and their larvae.

Soil improvement using waste materials: A review

With the industrialization, industrial by-products are produced in large quantities and creates nuisance to natural habitats. The disposal of these wastes like fly ash, marble powder, construction and demolition (C&D) waste, brick powder, agricultural wastes etc. has become the potential threat to the ecosystem and need some real solutions. The direct disposal of such wastes into open land or water bodies causes circumambient pollution. One of the potential solutions is to utilize these wastes in the construction industry on large scale as subgrade rehab or additive to cement based materials. In the present study, the compaction and strength characteristics of stabilized soil was studied by using various waste materials i.e. lime, cement, plastic waste, industrial waste, fibre, mushroom waste, wet olive pomace etc. and reviewed. The addition of additives improved the engineering properties of soil significantly.

The Role of Waves and Heat Exchange in the Hydrodynamics of Multi‐Basin Bays: The Example of Cádiz Bay (Southern Spain)

AbstractMulti‐basin bays constitute one of the most complex coastal environments, as tides, waves, freshwater discharges and air‐water heat exchange often coexist in basins with very different characteristics, ranging from low‐friction open water bodies directly connected to the open sea to narrow, highly frictional shallow creek systems with no connection to the open sea. Although the influence of tides and baroclinic gradients in these areas is relatively well known, the role of waves in the hydrodynamics and distributions of density, salinity and temperature has received less attention. The aim of this research is to evaluate the effects of waves and heat exchange on the hydrodynamics of multiple basins through numerical modeling. The model is calibrated and tested in a mesotidal bay in Southern Spain with five different basins; the results are used to analyze the momentum balance equation and the salinity, temperature and density distributions for simulations with and without consideration of waves. The results show that baroclinic density gradients often dominate the hydrodynamics in highly frictional, shallow basins of the bay where the air‐water heat exchange is more efficient. Waves can also modify the hydrodynamics of basins directly connected to open sea by increasing flow velocities and causing deviations of baroclinic density gradients, increasing the importance of tidal stresses in low frictional basins, while increasing baroclinic density gradients in narrow, highly frictional basins.

Spatial transferability of expert opinion models for American beaver habitat

Species distribution models and habitat suitability models (HSMs) have become a popular tool in the conservation of biodiversity. However, the ability to predict species spatial distributions at sites beyond the data source sites (i.e., spatial transferability) is critical for the applications of HSMs in the management and conservation of rare or endangered species. The main objective of our study was to assess the predictive performance and spatial transferability of expert opinion models (EOMs). To build EOMs, we identified through extensive literature reviews 17 key landscape variables to characterize habitat use by American beaver (Castor canadensis). We developed 31 pairwise opinion questions on the relative importance of the 17 selected habitat variables for an online survey in Qualtrics®. We used Saaty's analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and geospatial analysis to build EOMs for beaver. We tested the transferability of EOMs by assessing model predictive performance using the area under the curve (AUC > 0.7) in northcentral Mississippi and northern Alabama, USA. Thirty-five of 63 survey participants submitted complete, consistent surveys. Expert opinion models had fair predictive performance for beaver at the two study sites (AUC = 0.70–0.76). The fair predictive performance of EOM for the two sites, from which no opinion survey data were collected, indicated acceptable spatial transferability. The American beaver exhibits stable realized niche space throughout its geographic range, restricting habitat selection to open water bodies and associated wetlands, which may subsequently result in high transferability of HSMs.

Improving waterbird monitoring and conservation in the Sahel using remote sensing: a case study with the International Waterbird Census in Sudan

In several regions of the world, the remoteness of potential bird hotspots and lack of trained observers have often prevented countries from effectively designing proper monitoring schemes at a national scale. For many countries, it is not known whether certain bird strongholds have been missed that should be included for more complete censuses. Such gaps at national scales, sometimes large, may be detrimental for global monitoring schemes. To address this, we used the irregular participation of Sudan to the International Waterbird Census (IWC) as a case study. We designed and tested a method based on remote‐sensing data of the country’s lowlands to detect open water bodies in order to develop predictive models of the potential distribution of waterbird abundance and diversity. To identify open water bodies and their flooding duration, we used a Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) derived from Landsat 8 data. Field ornithological surveys were then used as ground‐truth data to estimate the method’s accuracy. The statistical results (overall accuracy = 0.972; Kappa index = 0.93) confirmed its effectiveness. Remotely sensed water bodies and additional environmental covariates were then used to build simple habitat models of the distribution of waterbird abundance and diversity based on IWC field survey data. Of the 3119 remotely sensed clusters of open water bodies, three were predicted to host more than 10 000 waterbirds, 89 more than 1000 waterbirds and five more than 30 waterbird species. Located mainly in the southern agricultural floodplains along the main rivers, these predicted waterbird strongholds are therefore recommended for inclusion in the next IWC survey in Sudan. Our findings indicate that using remote sensing to identify open water bodies combined with simple statistical modelling is likely to be a cost‐effective solution to improve IWC sampling and to enhance both waterbird and wetland monitoring in vast under‐surveyed regions.

Floating PV; an assessment of water quality and evaporation reduction in semi-arid regions

Abstract This work addresses the potential impact on water quality and quantifies the benefit of the low carbon power source of floating solar panels in evaporation reduction when using them on an open water body, such as an agricultural irrigation pond in semi-arid regions. By utilizing agricultural ponds for low carbon energy conversion, and saving precious water through evaporation reduction, the highly vulnerable agricultural sector will be empowered. A pilot size setup is prepared, key water quality parameters were monitored and evaporation quantities in a PV-covered pond are compared to those from an adjacent open water pond used as a control. Several inclination angles for the panels were tested. Results showed no adverse impact on the water quality; on the contrary, there is evidence of improvement particularly in nitrate and chlorophyll concentrations. Moreover, a reduction of ~60% in evaporation was observed; power generation from the floating panels, on the other hand, was statistically similar to that from ground-mounted panels.

A three-dimensional prediction method of dissolved oxygen in pond culture based on Attention-GRU-GBRT

Pond culture is an open water body, the distribution of dissolved oxygen in water is three-dimensional. The demand for dissolved oxygen in aquatic products living in different water layers is different. The traditional one-dimensional prediction at one single monitoring point can‘t reflect the real situation of dissolved oxygen in different spaces in the pond. To solve these problems, a three-dimensional prediction method of dissolved oxygen based on Attention-Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) - Gradient Boost Regression Tree (GBRT) was proposed in this paper. Firstly, the environmental factors affecting the distribution of dissolved oxygen were collected, and the dissolved oxygen prediction model of the central monitoring point was constructed using Attention-GRU. The three-dimensional coordinate system with the central monitoring point as the origin was then established, and the GBRT algorithm optimized by the Random Search algorithm(RS) was used to predict the dissolved oxygen in any position of the pond water. In the one-dimensional prediction of dissolved oxygen at the central monitoring point, the Attention-GRU model proposed in this paper had MSE of 0.121, MAE of 0.219, and RMSE of 0.348, which was a big improvement compared with LSTM model, ELM model and CNN model. In the three-dimensional prediction of dissolved oxygen in the pond, the RS-GBRT model proposed had MSE of 0.097, MAE of 0.191, and RMSE of 0.313. Compared with the models such as ExtraTree model, RandomForest model, and Bagging model, each evaluation index had been greatly improved. The experimental results indicated that the proposed method can accurately predict the dissolved oxygen in the three-dimensional space of the pond.

Investment in ecology to preserve the environment

Investing money in environmental protection measures is an investment project. The ecological problem is one of the global problems of our time. Disposal of household waste and their pollution of the environment is currently one of the most serious environmental problems in Russia. Human waste products also significantly affect the pollution of water bodies, since water that is used in cities for the needs of the population from the sewage system often enters directly into open water bodies, bypassing the system of treatment facilities, the quality of which leaves much to be desired: most of them almost cannot cope with their functions due to outdated and deteriorated equipment. In Russia, the national project “Ecology” has been adopted, since the need for the introduction of new technologies that do not harm the environment has long been acute.The subject of the studyis the investment of enterprises and organizations in environmental innovations for the preservation of natural resources.The purpose of the studyis the necessity and significance of investments in high-tech projects to improve the environmental situation and reduce emissions of pollutants into the air.Methodology.The financial support of the new national project “Ecology” has been studied. The companies that successfully implement the latest technologies in their production, focused on reducing the harm caused to the environment, thereby attracting investments in their projects, are highlighted.Results.Enterprises will be able to attract investments for the development of their own production only if they are attractive to investors, for whom such aspects of work as the introduction of modern technologies, taking into account the minimization of harm to the environment, are extremely important.

Investment in ecology

Investing money in environmental protection measures is an investment project. The ecological problem is one of the global problems of our time. Disposal of household waste and their pollution of the environment is currently one of the most serious environmental problems in Russia. Human waste products also significantly affect the pollution of water bodies, since water that is used in cities for the needs of the population from the sewage system often enters directly into open water bodies, bypassing the system of treatment facilities, the quality of which leaves much to be desired: most of them almost cannot cope with their functions due to outdated and deteriorated equipment. In Russia, the national project “Ecology” has been adopted, since the need for the introduction of new technologies that do not harm the environment has long been acute. The subject of the study is the investment of enterprises and organizations in environmental innovations for the preservation of natural resources. The purpose of the study is the necessity and significance of investments in high-tech projects to improve the environmental situation and reduce emissions of pollutants into the air. Methodology. The financial support of the new national project “Ecology” has been studied. The companies that successfully implement the latest technologies in their production, focused on reducing the harm caused to the environment, thereby attracting investments in their projects, are highlighted. Results. Enterprises will be able to attract investments for the development of their own production only if they are attractive to investors, for whom such aspects of work as the introduction of modern technologies, taking into account the minimization of harm to the environment, are extremely important.

The Formation and Balance of the Atmospheric Precipitations, Surface Water, and Groundwater on the Southern Slopes of the Khibiny Massif (Based on Data on the Isotopic Composition of Oxygen and Hydrogen)

The δ2H and δ18O values of the atmospheric precipitations in the Khibins vary within the range –147 ≤ δ2H ≤ –37‰, –20 ≤ δ18О ≤ –4‰ and are close to the global line of the precipitations for the northern hemisphere; the light values (with a positive deuterium excess) are typical of snow, while the heavy values are typical of rains. The data on the isotopic composition of water in open water bodies and groundwaters suggest their formation from the precipitations. Their flow (and subsurface migration) is accompanied by mixing of snowmelt and rain water; the efficiency of mixing can be evaluated by a decrease in the variation range of the values of δ2H and δ18О. According to isotopic data, the water of Lake Imandra, the major water body in the region, has formed through mixing of snowmelt and rain water in a proportion close to 1 : 1.

Rettungsringe und weitere aquanautische Gegenstände. Objekte erweitern die Historiografie der Psychiatrie

The unexpected discovery of two lifebelts in the storeroom of the Schussenried psychiatricclinic (ZfP Südwürttemberg, Bad Schussenried) was not only a big surprise, but also posed amystery to the medical historians and further staff of our Research Unit. The rural locationsurrounding the former Premonstratensian monastery consisting mainly of fields and forestshad, with the exception of a handful of small ponds, no large bodies of open water. The discoveryof these lifebelts in this seemingly unusual context and their subsequent inclusion intoa permanent museum exhibition documenting the local history of psychiatry, generated notonly research into their history, but also brought to light significant new discoveriesin respectto what was previously known about the everyday life and history of such institutions from thelate 19th to the middle of the 20th century. The objects, so untypical in a psychiatric environment,pointed beyond their obvious meaning as a real swimming aid for patients in a nearby pond:the study of their origin and use deepened the knowledge in other fields such as body care,procurement of foodstuff (fishing) and nutrition, straw and ice making, patient work and leisureactivities (bathing, boating, ice-skating). As progress was made with this research, a newchapter in the local history of psychiatry was revealed, one which was undoubtedly worthpursuing.

Suckermouth armoured catfish (Pterygoplichthys spp.) menace in freshwater aquaculture and natural aquatic systems in Andhra Pradesh, India

Suckermouth armoured catfish (Pterygoplichthys spp.) which is popularly called “Devil fish” in Andhra Pradesh, was recorded in 93.33% of fish ponds out of 600 ha surveyed in Krishna and West Godavari districts including mesohaline ponds wherein salinity ranges from 2 to 20‰. Pterygoplichthys spp. have ranged from 150 to 600 kg/ha that accounts to 2.01-7.50% of total biomass of fish harvested in aquaculture ponds leading to escalation of feed conversion ratio by 25.76%. Consequently, carp production has diminished by 18.88% to 22.92% leading to economic losses to fish farmers up to 13.40%. Food chain disruption by this alien fish is not only confined to benthic algae and periphyton but also foraging on supplementary feeds leaving primary fishes deprived from availing feed. Abundance of Pterygoplichthys spp populations in culture ponds as also in canals was high in monsoon season when compared to winter. Invasion and abundance of Pterygoplichthys spp in various river systems in Andhra Pradesh has become major concern for fishers causing extensive damage to nets and gears as also retarded catch per unit effort resulting in minimization of their income by 30%. Efforts to extract fish hydrolysate from Pterygoplichthys spp were futile due to intense bony skeleton and poor recovery rate which projected utilization of this fish for allied activities to minimum. Abundance of Pterygoplichthys spp is increasing in confined and open water bodies due to their tolerance and ability to grow and breed in variety of aquatic habitats including polluted environments as also lack of effective predators thus poses a high risk and threat to native freshwater species in any ecosystem in which they get established.

An integrated assessment of surface water dynamics in the Irtysh River Basin during 1990–2019 and exploratory factor analyses

Climate change and urbanization are jointly impacting on the open surface water area of the Irtysh River in the Arctic Circle. This will affect the economic development and ecology of the countries in the Irtysh River basin and the hydrological cycle of the Arctic Circle. However, the long-term changes of open surface water bodies in the Irtysh River Basin have not been well quantified. To address this, 89,000 Landsat 4,5,7 and 8 images from 1990 to 2019 were used to extract the surface water body area of the Irtysh River Basin and integrated the assessment of open surface water area dynamics. The geographical detector model was used to quantify the factors that affect the area of open surface water bodies. The results show that the total open surface water area of the Irtysh River Basin is an increasing trend over the past 30 years, with a total increase of 88,790 km2, of which the permanent water body area decreased by 20,800 km2 and the seasonal water body area increased by 109,590 km2. In addition, the factors that contributed the most to the dynamics of the surface water area in the Irtysh River Basin were evapotranspiration, precipitation and snow water equivalent, whose contribution rates could reach 72%, 66% and 61%, respectively, with important interactions between factors. This suggests that monitoring dynamics in surface water area requires comprehensive consideration of all factors. Results obtained from this study offer the latest information for fully understanding the spatio-temporal variation of surface water body area and its driving factors in this basin, which could be used to effectively manage water resources for possibly reducing international water disputes and protecting the fragile ecology in the Arctic.

Wetland Hydroperiod Change Along the Upper Columbia River Floodplain, Canada, 1984 to 2019

Increasing air temperatures and changing hydrological conditions in the mountainous Kootenay Region of British Columbia, Canada are expected to affect floodplain wetland extent and function along the Columbia River. The objective of this study was to determine the seasonally inundated hydroperiod for a floodplain section (28.66 km2) of the Upper Columbia River wetlands complex using time series satellite image observations and binary open water mask extraction. A mid pixel resolution (30 m) optical satellite image time series of 61 clear sky scenes from the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensors were used to map temporal variations in floodplain open water wetland extent during the April to October hydrologically active season from 1984 to 2019 (35 years). The hydroperiod from the first 31 scenes (T1: 18 years) was compared to the second 30 (T2: 16 years) to identify changes in the permanent and seasonal open water bodies. The seasonal variation in open water extent and duration was similar across the two time periods but the permanent water body extent diminished by ~16% (or ~3.5% of the floodplain). A simple linear model (r2 = 0.87) was established to predict floodplain open water extent as a function of river discharge downstream of the case study area. Four years of Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) data from 1992 to 1995 (12 scenes) were examined to evaluate the feasibility of extending the hydroperiod record back to 1972 using lower resolution (60 m) archive data. While the MSS hydroperiod produced a similar pattern of open water area to duration to the TM/OLI hydroperiod, small open water features were omitted or expanded due to the lower resolution. While MSS could potentially extend the TM/OLI hydroperiod record, this was not performed as the loss of features like the river channel diminished its value for change detection purposes. Radarsat 2 scenes from 2015 to 2019 were examined to evaluate the feasibility of continued mountain valley hydroperiod monitoring using higher spatial and temporal resolution sensors like the Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM). From the available horizontal transmit/receive (HH) single polarization sample set (8 scenes), the hydroperiod pattern of open water extent to duration was similar to the longer Landsat time series and possessed greater feature detail, but it was significantly reduced in seasonal inundation area due to the systematic omission of open water areas containing emergent vegetation. However, accepting that differences exist in sensor-based hydroperiod attributes, the higher temporal resolution of RCM will be suited to mountain floodplain inundation monitoring and open water hydroperiod analysis.

Mathematical model for the duration of runoff formation determined from the road surface

IntroductionMany scientists were engaged in the problems of studying the runoff formation conditions from the water-intake basins area and studying the operation of rainwater drainage systems and its calculations. Among them: Alekseev M. I., Belov М. М., Dykarevskyi V. S., Kurganov А. М., Zhuk V. M., Tkachuk S. G., Salchuk V. L., Tkatchuk O. A., Shevchuk O. V., Dziopak J., James W., Horton R., Huber W., Mays L. W., Rossman L. A., Weitman D. [1–9] and others. The drainage systems calculation is implemented based on empirical or semi-empirical studies for pipes or open water bodies. Unlike the generally accepted conditions for the urban city areas drainage elements calculation, highways have the features of runoff and the formation of maximum runoff. Artificial surfaces of surface runoff are characterized by low water absorption, significant longitudinal and transverse slopes. According to State Building Norms DBN V.2.3–4:2015 «Highways. Part I. Design. Part II. Construction», the largest longitudinal slope for a category I road is 40 %, the carriageway transverse slope on straight sections is 25 %. In the world of engineering practice there is no single generally accepted approach to the construction of hydrographs of rainwater inflow to surface drainage structures. Therefore, the question remains open in terms of establishing the estimated rain duration and the surface runoff volume from the roads surface in particular. Goal and problemTo explore and establish the main factors and their parameters for the surface runoff formation from road surfaces. Research methodsIn engineering practice, forecasting the estimated rain duration is defined as the time from its beginning to the time of collection by the drainage system. This research is based on the prediction method and analysis of the factors, which influence the effluents movement on the coating surface of the linear in the plan water-intake basins. Conducting research with the forecasted natural meteorological phenomenon and at the minimum estimated rain intensity values according to climatic conditions of Ukraine. ResultsThe analysis of known methods for duration of surface runoff formation determining performed. For its determination, it is suggested to take into account the surface wetting duration and the influence of the viscous component of the friction force between the runoff layers. An analytical dependence for the surface runoff formation duration determining for highways with asphalt concrete pavement and variable longitudinal slope in the range from 0‰ to 30‰ is obtained. The influence of wastewater viscoelastic properties is determined. The influence of the calculated precipitation intensity on the surface runoff formation duration for linear water-intake basins is determined. ConclusionsA mathematical model for determining the surface runoff formation duration for linear water-intake basin, namely highways, taking into account the estimated highway slope, the width of the carriageway, the estimated rainfall. A comparative analysis with existing methods is performed.

Assessing development and climate variability impacts on water resources in the Zambezi River basin. Simulating future scenarios of climate and development

Study region: The Zambezi River basin, a transboundary basin supplying vital resources to vast human and environmental systems and subject to radical changes linked to climate and infrastructural development. Study focus: Application of a hydrological model (Pitman) established for 76 sub-basins covering the total basin area of about 1 350 000 km2 to assess the potential impacts of increasing water demand under global warming scenarios (1.5, 2, and 3 degree). New hydrological insights for the region: The application of the calibrated model to the analysis of different combinations of climate change and water use showed that the relative impacts are quite different across the whole Zambezi River basin. The greatest impacts are found in the areas containing large open water bodies (natural and man-made), that are very sensitive to the multiple effects of increased aridity. The uncertainty in the future simulation results remains hugely dependent upon the source of the climate change data and the change signals given by them. The sample RCM data (6 models) used are representative of many more model outputs, while the spread of possible climate change signals remains quite large. However, the main uncertainties do not invalidate the overall message of possible water resources change that is summarized in a substantial decrease in water availability under all the combined scenarios.

Peat Soil for Synthetic Acid Mine Drainage Treatment: Characteristic Study

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is an untreated outflow of acidic water from metal or coal mines. Improper treatment of the harmful effluent causes major environmental concern and remains as an unsolved problem for mining operators worldwide. The untreated AMD contains high concentration of several heavy metals despite low pH level. Iron (Fe) is most dominant element of heavy metal spotted in the AMD water and must be filtered and treated before being released to open water bodies. Current practises by the industries adopted two categories of AMD treatment methods, namely active and passive treatments. Passive treatment method was adopted into this study by using successive alkalinity producing system (SAPS) to reduce Fe concentration in the AMD. Strict regulations by mine operators to acquire on-site AMD, led to use of synthetic AMD. Peat soil was introduced as organic substrate treatment media, as compared to common materials used such as mushroom spent, wood shaving and animal manure. In this research the peat soil was characterized and its effectiveness to filter the Fe content was assessed using laboratory scale studies. Prior to the test, the natural peat soil was analyzed via Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis, Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) analysis and carbon-hydrogen-nitrogen-sulphur (CHNS) element analysis. After going through laboratory tests, the peat soil residues were assessed through SEM-EDX analysis to determine the trapped Fe content. The natural peat soil does not contain any Fe substance. However, the analyzed peat soil residues showed that, approximately one to four percent of the Fe were found in the peat soil residues. The use of the peat soil for the AMD treatment in SAPS method is applicable and can be used as alternative organic substrate for treatment media.

Sound detection by Atlantic cod: An overview.

The Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is among the commercially most important fish species in the world. Since sound plays such an important role in the lives of Atlantic cod and its related species, understanding of their bioacoustics is of great importance. Moreover, since cod are amenable to studies of hearing, especially in open bodies of water, they have the potential to become a "model species" for investigations of fish hearing. To serve as the basis for future studies, and to bring together what is now known about cod hearing, this paper reviews the literature to date. While there is some discussion of other species in the paper, the focus is upon what is already known about cod hearing, and what now needs to be known. An additional focus is on what knowledge of cod hearing tells about hearing in fishes in general.