Occurrence of the odours geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) in freshwater environments indicates that odour-producing organisms are commonly occurring. In the present study, we assumed actinomycetes to be a major source of the odours. Seasonal concentrations of odours and abundance of Actinobacteria, which includes actinomycetes and other G+ and high GC bacteria, were determined in one oligotrophic and two eutrophic freshwater streams, as well as in aquacultures connected to these streams, in Denmark. Concentrations of geosmin and MIB ranged from 2 to 9 ng l(-1) and were lowest in the winter. Passage of stream water in the aquacultures increased the amount of geosmin and MIB by up to 55% and 110%, respectively. Densities of actinobacteria were determined by fluorescence in situ hybridization with catalyzed reporter deposition (CARD-FISH) technique and were found to make up from 4 to 38 x 10(7) cells l(-1), corresponding to 3-9% of the total bacterial populations. The lowest densities of actinobacteria occurred in the winter. Filamentous bacteria targeted by the FISH probe made up about 2.7-38% (average was 22%) of the actinobacteria and were expected to be actinomycetes. Combined microautoradiography and CARD-FISH demonstrated that 10-38% (incorporation of 3H-thymidine) and 41-65% (incorporation of 3H-leucine) of the actinobacteria were metabolically active. The proportion of active actinobacteria increased up to 2-fold during passage of stream water in the aquacultures, and up to 98% of the cells became active. Sequencing of 16S rRNA genes in 8 bacterial isolates with typical actinomycete morphology from the streams and ponds demonstrated that most of them belonged to the genus Streptomyces. The isolated actinomycetes produced geosmin at rates from 0.1 to 35 aggeosmin bacterium(-1)h(-1). MIB was produced at similar rates in 5 isolates, whereas no MIB was produced by three of the isolates. Addition of the odours to stream water demonstrated that indigenous stream bacteria were capable of reducing the odours, and that enrichment with LB medium stimulated the degradation. Our study shows that bacterial communities in freshwater include geosmin- and MIB-producing actinobacteria. However, the mechanisms controlling production as well as degradation of the odours in natural waters appear complex and require further research.
Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 23 Pereyaslavskaya str., Kharkov 61015, Ukraine. cryo@online.kharkov.ua
The object of this research is to study acoustic emissions (AE) in aqueous solutions of polyethylene glycols (PEGs) of molecular masses from 300 to 3000 during cooling at 100 degrees C/min and heating at 70 degrees C/min in the temperature range from 0 to -196 degrees C. The dependence of AE intensity on PEG concentration and molecular mass is analysed. The AE intensity correlated with the crystalline to amorphous phase ratio in the frozen system.
Because microalgae are known for quick biomass growth and nutrient uptake, there has been much interest in their use in research on wastewater treatment methods. While many studies have concentrated on the algal treatment of wastewaters with low to medium ammonium concentrations, there are several liquid waste streams with high ammonium concentrations that microalgae could potentially treat. The aim of this paper was to test ammonium tolerance of the indigenous algae community of Lake Mälaren and to use this mixed consortia of algae to remove nutrients from biogas digestate. Algae from Lake Mälaren were cultivated in Jaworski's Medium containing a range of ammonium concentrations and the resulting algal growth was determined. The algae were able to grow at NH4-N concentrations of up to 200 mg L(-1) after which there was significant inhibition. To test the effectiveness of the lake water algae on the treatment of biogas digestate, different pre-cultivation set-ups and biogas digestate concentrations were tested. It was determined that mixing pre-cultivated suspension algae with 25% of biogas digestate by volume, resulting in an ammonium concentration of around 300 mg L(-1), produced the highest algal growth. The algae were effective in removing 72.8±2.2% of NH4-N and 41.4±41.4% of PO4-P.
A series of alkyl bicarbamates supramolecular organogelators were synthesized with different structures and lengths of alkyl chains. The driving forces for the self-assembly of small molecules, including the intermolecular H bonding, p-p stacking and van der Waals interactions, played an important role in the formation of different 3D network structures, i.e., fibers, ribbons, sheets, and prisms. And a probable formation process of the gel networks was proposed. Furthermore, the phase-selective gelling performances were investigated for oil removal from aqueous solution. Interestingly, the gelling properties were found to be affected by the length and structure of alkyl chains, while some gelators with intermediate alkyl chain lengths could effectively gel all the tested oils from water surface within 15 min, such as Russian crude oil, diesel, gasoline, soybean oil, peanut oil, olive oil, cyclohexane, hexane and ethyl acetate. Advantageously, fast gelation, high rate of oil removal (>95%) and excellent oil retention rate (close to 100%) were realized in the recovery of oil spills from water surface. This kind of supramolecular gelators demonstrates good potential applications in the delivery or removal of organic pollution from oil/water mixtures.
Source-separated blackwater from low-flush toilets contains plant-available nutrients and can be used as a fertilizer. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact on pathogen inactivation when treating blackwater with urea and/or lime. Blackwater was spiked with Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli O157, Enterococcus faecalis, and Ascaris suum eggs, and treated with urea and/or lime in concentrations up to 0.1% w/w. The bottles were kept in a storage facility (manure slurry tank) for 102 days while monitoring the pathogen concentrations. The treatment time needed to meet the requirement for Salmonella and E. coli reduction could be reduced at least six-fold. The enterococci were more persistent, and only the highest treatment doses had a significantly higher inactivation than the controls. The Ascaris egg viability was only reduced by around 50%, so higher urea/lime doses and/or longer treatment times are required to fulfill the treatment requirements of 3 log10 reductions of parasite eggs.
The methane potential and biodegradability of different ratios of acetate and lignin-rich effluents from a neutral sulfite semi-chemical (NSSC) pulp mill were investigated. Results showed ultimate methane yields up to 333±5mLCH4/gCOD when only acetate-rich substrate was added and subsequently lower methane potentials of 192±4mLCH4/gCOD when the lignin fraction was increased. The presence of lignin showed a linear decay in methane production, resulting in a 41% decrease in methane when the lignin-rich feed had a 30% increase. A negative linear correlation between lignin content and biodegradability was also observed. Furthermore, the effect of hydrotalcite (HT) addition was evaluated and showed increase in methane potential of up to 8%, a faster production rate and higher soluble lignin removal (7-12% higher). Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies between 64 and 83% were obtained for all samples.
Wastewater-based epidemiology is an efficient way to assess illicit drug use, complementing currently used methods retrieved from different data sources. The aim of this study is to compare stimulant drug use in five Nordic capital cities that include for the first time wastewater samples from Torshavn in the Faroe Islands. Currently there are no published reports that compare stimulant drug use in these Nordic capitals. All wastewater samples were analyzed using solid phase extraction and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. The results were compared with data published by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction based on illicit drugs in wastewater from over 50 European cities. Confirming previous reports, the results showed high amphetamine loads compared with other European countries. Very little apparent abuse of stimulant drugs was detected in Torshavn. Methamphetamine loads were the highest from Helsinki of the Nordic countries, indicating substantial fluctuations in the availability of the drug compared with previous studies. Methamphetamine loads from Oslo confirmed that the use continues to be high. Estimated cocaine use was found to be in the lower range compared with other cities in the southern and western part of Europe. Ecstasy and cocaine showed clear variations between weekdays and weekends, indicating recreational use. This study further demonstrates geographical trends in the stimulant drug market in five Nordic capitals, which enables a better comparison with other areas of the continent.
Recent analyses of atmospheric aerosols from different regions have demonstrated the ubiquitous presence of strong surfactants and evidenced surface tension values, s, below 40 mN m(-1), suspected to enhance the cloud-forming potential of these aerosols. In this work, this approach was further improved and combined with absolute concentration measurements of aerosol surfactants by colorimetric titration. This analysis was applied to PM2.5 aerosols collected at the Baltic station of Ask?, Sweden, from July to October 2010. Strong surfactants were found in all the sampled aerosols, with s = (32-40) ? 1 mN m(-1) and concentrations of at least 27 ? 6 mM or 104 ? 21 pmol m(-3). The absolute surface tension curves and critical micelle concentrations (CMC) determined for these aerosol surfactants show that (1) surfactants are concentrated enough in atmospheric particles to strongly depress the surface tension until activation, and (2) the surface tension does not follow the Szyszkowski equation during activation but is nearly constant and minimal, which provides new insights on cloud droplet activation. In addition, both the CMCs determined and the correlation (R(2) ~ 0.7) between aerosol surfactant concentrations and chlorophyll-a seawater concentrations suggest a marine and biological origin for these compounds.
Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya emb. 1, Saint-Petersburg 199034, Russian Federation. Electronic address: golubkov@zin.ru.
Organic pollution is a serious environmental problem for the coastal zones of seas. The study tested the hypothesis that allochthonous organic carbon derived from St. Petersburg wastewaters is a significant basal resource of carbon for the benthic food webs. We analyzed stable isotope composition of carbon and nitrogen in suspended organic matter in the Neva Estuary and in the tissues of macroinvertebrates and fish. The Stable Isotope Bayesian mixing model showed that waste waters were an important source of carbon for the most of consumers in the Neva Estuary. The autochthonous carbon produced by phytoplankton was a significant source of carbon only for some macroinvertebrates. The main consumers of the carbon derived from waste waters were tubificid worms, chironomid larvae and alien polychaete, which currently dominate in the zoobenthos of the estuary. These species replaced the former dominants, native crustaceans, which to a lesser extent use anthropogenic carbon.
An uncertainty budget was constructed for the measurement of ethanol in blood by headspace gas chromatography. The uncertainty budget, covering the analytical range of ethanol concentrations up to 3.00 g/kg, included analytical uncertainty components, traceability uncertainty components, and effects caused by interindividual variation in blood water content. The analytical combined standard uncertainty was estimated from duplicate measurements of real samples and included contributions from headspace recovery, variation between columns, injection, repeatability of analytical signals, and statistical uncertainty of the calibration function. The traceability uncertainty was estimated in a sub-budget based on information about the calibrator and about the preparation of the aqueous standards. Two uncertainty components depended on the interindividual variation in blood water content. First, it caused uncertainty on the density of the blood, and second, it had an effect on the gas phase concentration of ethanol when doing the headspace sampling. These effects as well as their covariance were included in the uncertainty budget. For fresh blood samples, the analytical uncertainty was the dominating uncertainty component, accounting for approximately 90% of the variance. For blood samples collected 100 h postmortem, the interindividual variation in blood water content was the largest uncertainty component. It was demonstrated that subtracting a "safety margin" of 0.1 g/kg from the results was sufficient to keep the risk of committing a type 1 error below 0.1% in ethanol concentrations ranging up to 2 g/kg for fresh blood samples. This risk was higher for postmortem blood samples because of the higher uncertainty of measurement, but still less than approximately 1.4%.
