Hydrological exchange and sediment characteristics in a riverbank: relationship between heavy metals and invertebrate community structure

1995 ◽  
Vol 52 (10) ◽  
pp. 2084-2097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Gibert ◽  
Sandrine Plénet ◽  
Pierre Marmonier ◽  
Vladimir Vanek

The first metre of bed sediments of the Rhône River functions as a filter for fluxes of heavy metals and epigean organisms between surface and interstitial environments. To study the efficacy of this bank filtration, three sampling stations were established at increasing distances from pumping wells, resulting in a gradient of hydraulic characteristics. Station A, a permanent downwelling area with very high hydraulic gradients, low hydraulic conductivity, low oxygen content, and rather high metal concentrations contained a fauna exclusively composed of epigean organisms. At station B, intermediate hydraulic gradients, high hydraulic conductivity near the surface, and variable direction of water exchanges resulted in well-oxygenated pore water and a diversified fauna with hypogean and epigean species. Finally, at station C, low hydraulic gradient, low hydraulic conductivity, low water exchange, and high sediment metal concentrations resulted in low pore-water oxygen concentrations and low interstitial fauna density and diversity. At this site, low oxygen content and low biodiversity were related to the clogging of shallow sediments and low filtration efficiency. Thus, bank filtration efficiency, a property that depends mainly on natural or human-induced hydraulic gradients and sediment granulometry, determines pore-water chemistry, metal distribution, and faunal composition in the shallow interstitial environments of the Rhône River.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Muyun Sun ◽  
Kaiyuan He ◽  
Shi Shu

Despite the extensive attention paid to the transport of heavy metals in sludge landfills, the processes of transporting these pollutants from a landfill to the underground environment are quite complicated and subject to significant uncertainty. In this study, the transport of typical heavy metal pollutants in a sludge landfill through saturated and unsaturated soil zones during rainfall was investigated via numerical modeling. The objectives of the study are to evaluate the heavy metal pollution risk from a sludge landfill under rainfall infiltration conditions and to propose several management suggestions. The results indicate that, during rainfall, heavy metal concentrations at the top of the unsaturated sludge layer decrease rapidly, but they decrease more gradually at the bottom of the layer. The maximum concentration appears in vertical distribution and decreases gradually through the saturated zone. Nickel is the first heavy metal pollutant to break through the low-permeability natural silt barrier. The transport parameters not only influence the simulated time for heavy metal pollutants to break through the silt layer and cause underground environmental pollution but also affect the extent to which the heavy metal pollutants in pore water exceed the guidelines. On the basis of these results, for dredged sludge with heavy metal concentrations significantly exceeding the standard, the concentration of heavy metals in pore water should be reduced before the sludge is landfilled, and a covering layer should be established on the sludge surface to control rainfall infiltration.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-40
Author(s):  
Suneetha Naidu ◽  
Gautam Gupta

Estimation of hydraulic parameters in coastal aquifers is an important task in groundwater resource assessment and development. An attempt is made to estimate these parameters using geoelectrical data in combination with pore-water resistivity of existing wells. In the present study, 29 resistivity soundings were analysed along with 29 water samples, collected from the respective dug wells and boreholes, in order to compute hydraulic parameters like formation factor, porosity, hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity from coastal region of north Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra, India. The result shows some parts of the study area reveal relatively high value of hydraulic conductivity, porosity and transmissivity. Further, a negative correlation is seen between hydraulic conductivity and bulk resistivity. The hydraulic conductivity is found to vary between 0.014 and 293 m/day, and the transmissivity varied between 0.14 and 11,722 m2/day. The transmissivity values observed here are in good correspondence with those obtained from pumping test data of Central Ground Water Board. These zones also have high aquifer thickness and therefore characterize high potential within the water-bearing formation. A linear, positive relationship between transverse resistance and transmissivity is observed, suggesting increase in transverse resistance values indicate high transmissivity of aquifers. These relations will be extremely vital in characterization of aquifer system, especially from crystalline hard rock area.


Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Ogochukwu Ozotta ◽  
Philip J. Gerla

The transport of dissolved minerals and groundwater flow plays a crucial role in the ecosystem of many wetlands. Nonetheless, installing equipment to monitor groundwater seepage is invasive, harms vegetation, and can impact biodiversity. By remotely mapping surface temperature in late summer, when there is the greatest difference between warm soil and cold groundwater, temperature patterns can expose areas with the greatest upward gradient and flow. The conventional method of using tensiometers to measure hydraulic gradient and estimate flux using Darcy’s law was applied and compared with thermal imaging to characterize groundwater seepage at two contrasting sites within a central North Dakota fen (groundwater discharge wetland). Both sites exhibited variable gradients between the shallow and deep tensiometers. The temperature trend determined from the thermal imaging showed a closer relationship to the measured hydraulic gradients at the herbaceous (Sedge) site than at the wooded (Willow) site. Saturated hydraulic conductivity K ranged from 6 × 10−5 to 2 × 10−4 m/s for the Willow site; and 6 × 10−6 to 1 × 10−4 m/s for Sedge site. The flux calculated for the Willow site ranged from 1.4 × 10−5 to 2.7 × 10−4 m/s and that of the Sedge site ranged from 2.2 × 10−6 to 6.3 × 10−5 m/s. The gradients are affected at shallow depth because of heterogeneous soil stratigraphy, which is likely the reason that seepage faces at the sites cannot be mapped solely by thermal imaging.


2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Souza Valladares ◽  
Otávio Antônio de Camargo ◽  
José Ruy Porto de Carvalho ◽  
Alessandra Maria Cia Silva

Agricultural management with chemicals may contaminate the soil with heavy metals. The objective of this study was to apply Principal Component Analysis and geoprocessing techniques to identify the origin of the metals Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cr and Cd as potential contaminants of agricultural soils. The study was developed in an area of vineyard cultivation in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Soil samples were collected and GPS located under different uses and coverings. The metal concentrations in the soils were determined using the DTPA method. The Cu and Zn content was considered high in most of the samples, and was larger in the areas cultivated with vineyards that had been under the application of fungicides for several decades. The concentrations of Cu and Zn were correlated. The geoprocessing techniques and the Principal Component Analysis confirmed the enrichment of the soil with Cu and Zn because of the use and management of the vineyards with chemicals in the preceding decades.


2012 ◽  
Vol 727-728 ◽  
pp. 85-89
Author(s):  
Luzinete P. Barbosa ◽  
Elki C. Souza ◽  
Lucio Salgado ◽  
I. Costa

In this work, the effect of sintering atmosphere on the corrosion resistance of sintered titanium has been evaluated in 0.9 % aqueous NaCl solution to simulate physiological environment. Corrosion tests were performed on titanium porous sintered under vacuum and vacuum plus dynamic argon. The results showed better passive properties associated to the titanium sintered under argon plus vacuum atmosphere than to the vacuum sintered titanium. The better corrosion resistance of the argon plus vacuum sintered titanium was attributed to the formation of a thin passive film on the titanium surface during sintering due the low oxygen content present in this atmosphere.


1918 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. G. Martin ◽  
A. S. Loevenhart ◽  
C. H. Bunting

Exposure of rabbits to an atmosphere of low oxygen content results in a stimulation of the cardiorespiratory systems, in an extension (hyperplasia) of red bone marrow and probably of a thyroid hyperplasia, with the further production of hydropic and hyaline degeneration in the cells of the parenchymatous organs. An atmosphere of high carbon dioxide and normal oxygen content produces, however, a stimulation of the cardiorespiratory systems, but no marrow extension and, in the concentrations used, but slight hydropic degeneration in the parenchyma of the glandular organs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McTee ◽  
Lorinda Bullington ◽  
Matthias C Rillig ◽  
Philip W Ramsey

ABSTRACTMany experiments that measure the response of microbial communities to heavy metals increase metal concentrations abruptly in the soil. However, it is unclear whether abrupt additions mimic the gradual and often long-term accumulation of these metals in the environment where microbial populations may adapt. In a greenhouse experiment that lasted 26 months, we tested whether bacterial communities and soil respiration differed between soils that received an abrupt or a gradual addition of copper or no copper at all. Bacterial richness and other diversity indices were consistently lower in the abrupt treatment compared to the ambient treatment that received no copper. The abrupt addition of copper yielded different initial bacterial communities than the gradual addition; however, these communities appeared to converge once copper concentrations were approximately equal. Soil respiration in the abrupt treatment was initially suppressed but recovered after four months. Afterwards, respiration in both the gradual and abrupt treatments wavered between being below or equal to the ambient treatment. Overall, our study indicates that gradual and abrupt additions of copper can yield similar bacterial communities and respiration, but these responses may drastically vary until copper concentrations are equal.


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