Detection of fluorescent compounds in the environment using granular activated charcoal detectors     

Chris Smart  Brad Simpson 《Environmental Geology》2002,42(5):538-545

Granular activated charcoal (GAC) acts as a general adsorptive medium for organic molecules, and is widely used to capture fluorescent tracer dyes. To investigate the capability of GAC in contaminant screening and tracer adsorption, a number of detectors were deployed for 2-6 days in a range of urban surface waters, and the adsorbed compounds eluted in an alkaline alcohol solution. Simultaneous water samples showed a diverse range of fluorescence environments, ranging from relatively clean, steady groundwater discharge, to highly concentrated and variable treated municipal sewage. A wide variety of organic compounds and dyes were found in the waters, as chronic and acute contaminants. The relationship between charcoal and water spectra depended on exposure time and loading. Short exposure times emphasized short wavelengths, longer exposure times emphasized longer wavelengths at the expense of shorter wavelengths. The magnitude of the effect depended on loading, being greater in enriched waters. In general, charcoal eluent shows a significant gain in fluorescence intensity over water. However, there may be an apparent loss at shorter wavelengths for samples with long exposure times and high loading. A similar bias was also discovered with the elution time of activated charcoal. Short wavelength fluorescence intensity peaked after a few minutes of elution; longer wavelength fluorescence increased over many days. These results show that charcoal is a reasonably effective material for adsorption of longer wavelength compounds. However, the ubiquity of many fluorescent dyes in the environment, and the complex relationship between the waters and the eluent spectrum, suggest that considerable care is required in the interpretation of eluent spectra.  相似文献   

Defining the Quaternary     

Brad Pillans  Tim Naish 《Quaternary Science Reviews》2004,23(23-24):2271-2282

The Quaternary System is under threat of extinction as a chronostratigraphic unit in the international Geological Time Scale. In its place, the Neogene System (previously comprising Miocene and Pliocene Series), is to be extended to include the Pleistocene and Holocene Series. It may be possible to “save” the Quaternary by defining it as a Subsystem of the Neogene. In doing so, it would be an opportune time to extend the base of the Quaternary to 2.6 Ma to encompass the time during which (1) Earth's climate has been strongly influenced by bi-polar glaciation, and (2) the genus Homo first appeared and evolved.  相似文献   

Evidence and Implications of Recent Climate Change in Northern Alaska and Other Arctic Regions   总被引：19，自引：0，他引：19  

Larry D. Hinzman  Neil D. Bettez  W. Robert Bolton  F. Stuart Chapin  Mark B. Dyurgerov  Chris L. Fastie  Brad Griffith  Robert D. Hollister  Allen Hope  Henry P. Huntington  Anne M. Jensen  Gensuo J. Jia  Torre Jorgenson  Douglas L. Kane  David R. Klein  Gary Kofinas  Amanda H. Lynch  Andrea H. Lloyd  A. David McGuire  Frederick E. Nelson  Walter C. Oechel  Thomas E. Osterkamp  Charles H. Racine  Vladimir E. Romanovsky  Robert S. Stone  Douglas A. Stow  Matthew Sturm  Craig E. Tweedie  George L. Vourlitis  Marilyn D. Walker  Donald A. Walker  Patrick J. Webber  Jeffrey M. Welker  Kevin S. Winker  Kenji Yoshikawa 《Climatic change》2005,72(3):251-298

The Arctic climate is changing. Permafrost is warming, hydrological processes are changing and biological and social systems are also evolving in response to these changing conditions. Knowing how the structure and function of arctic terrestrial ecosystems are responding to recent and persistent climate change is paramount to understanding the future state of the Earth system and how humans will need to adapt. Our holistic review presents a broad array of evidence that illustrates convincingly; the Arctic is undergoing a system-wide response to an altered climatic state. New extreme and seasonal surface climatic conditions are being experienced, a range of biophysical states and processes influenced by the threshold and phase change of freezing point are being altered, hydrological and biogeochemical cycles are shifting, and more regularly human sub-systems are being affected. Importantly, the patterns, magnitude and mechanisms of change have sometimes been unpredictable or difficult to isolate due to compounding factors. In almost every discipline represented, we show how the biocomplexity of the Arctic system has highlighted and challenged a paucity of integrated scientific knowledge, the lack of sustained observational and experimental time series, and the technical and logistic constraints of researching the Arctic environment. This study supports ongoing efforts to strengthen the interdisciplinarity of arctic system science and improve the coupling of large scale experimental manipulation with sustained time series observations by incorporating and integrating novel technologies, remote sensing and modeling.  相似文献   

Increased Thermal-Pulse Flowmeter Resolution by Adding a Packer and Computer     

Brad F. Lyles 《Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation》1994,14(4):191-199

Measurement accuracy was increased by nearly one order of magnitude by outfitting the thermal-pulse flowmeter (TFM) with an inflatable packer. To accurately measure slow water velocities in boreholes greater than 15 cm diameter, it is necessary to divert borehole fluids through the TFM by inflating a packer. During calibration it was noted that the TFM's accuracy decreased as the borehole diameter increased. With Lhe packer inflated the TFM has a useful flow measurement range of 0.08 to 15 L/min (with flow velocities of 0.24 ± 0.012 cm/inin to 45.7 ± 0.61 cm/min, respectively, in 20-cm-diameter pipe), compared to 0.8 to 57 L/min for a packcrless TFM. A computer interlace was added to the TFM to provide a real-time graphical display of the differential voltage output from the TFM, a running mean and standard deviation of the pulse-response time, and a mean flow rate and velocity based on calibration curve fits.  相似文献   

Sensitivity analysis of pediment development through numerical simulation and selected geospatial query     

Mark W. Strudley  A. Brad Murray 《Geomorphology》2007,88(3-4):329-351

Dozens of references recognizing pediment landforms in widely varying lithologic, climatic, and tectonic settings suggest a ubiquity in pediment forming processes on mountain piedmonts worldwide. Previous modeling work illustrates the development of a unique range in arid/semiarid piedmont slope (< 0.2 or 11.3°) and regolith thickness (2–4 m) that defines pediments, despite varying the initial conditions and domain characteristics (initial regolith thickness, slope, distance from basin to crest, topographic perturbations, and boundary conditions) and process rates (fluvial sediment transport efficiency and weathering rates). This paper expands upon the sensitivity analysis through numerical simulation of pediment development in the presence of spatially varying rock type, various base level histories, various styles of sediment transport, and various rainfall rates to determine how pediment development might be restricted in certain environments. This work suggests that in landscapes characterized by soil and vegetation types that favor incisive fluvial sediment transport styles coupled with incisive base level conditions, pediment development will be disrupted by the roughening of sediment mantled surfaces, thereby creating spatial variability in topography, regolith thickness, and bedrock weathering rates. Base level incision rates that exceed the integrated sediment flux along a hillslope derived from upslope weathering and sediment transport on the order of 10^− 3 m y^− 1 restrict pediment development by fostering piedmont incision and/or wholesale removal (stripping) of regolith mantles prior to footslope pediment development. Simulations illustrate an insensitivity to alternating layers of sandstone and shale 3–15 m thick oriented in various geometric configurations (vertical, horizontal, and dip-slope) and generating different regolith hydrologic properties and exhibiting weathering rate variations up to 3-fold. Higher fluxes and residence times of subsurface groundwater in more humid environments, as well as dissolution-type weathering, lead to a thickening of regolith mantles on erosional piedmonts on the order of 10¹ m and an elimination of pediment morphology. An initial test of the model sensitivity analysis in arid/semiarid environments, for which field reconnaissance and detailed geomorphic mapping indicate the presence of pediments controlled by climatic conditions (soil hydrologic properties, vegetation characteristics, and bedrock weathering style) that are known and constant, supports our modeling results that pediments are more prevalent in hydrologically-open basins.  相似文献