Responses of the zooplankton community to the formation of a small reservoir on the Caveiras River, southern Brazil

We investigated changes in the species richness, abundance, and composition of the zooplankton community in response to the formation of a small reservoir in the Caveiras River, southern Brazil. Zooplankton were collected using a motor-pump and a plankton net (68 μm mesh), with 600 L of water filtered per sample. Sampling occurred during the pre- (April, August, and December 2011) and post-impoundment (July and October 2013, and January 2014) phases of the Caveiras River. We identified 86 taxa in this study, and rotifers were the predominant group. The species richness and abundance of the zooplankton increased after the filling of the reservoir. Furthermore, the zooplankton community showed a clear change in the species composition between the phases before and after the formation of the reservoir, with the emergence of typical planktonic species. Changes in the structure of the zooplankton community were related to changes in limnological characteristics due to the impoundment of the river, mainly in the availability of food and in the concentration of nutrients.

Migration of mineral oil in elastomers

This work describes a newly introduced experimental procedure to quantify the diffusion progress of mineral oils locally resolved in NBR. Diffusion of reference oils IRM 901, IRM 902 and IRM 903 in NBR with various acrylonitrile contents was investigated. Classical sorption experiments were performed as a basic characterization and compared to the newly introduced method. Here, elastomer specimens are only being dipped with the bottom in a relatively small reservoir of mineral oil. This provides a determination of locally resolved concentration profiles of mineral oils, and the calculation of diffusion coefficients. These diffusion coefficients follow the same trends like those determined via sorption experiments. Despite differences in the absolute numbers, activation energies of diffusion can be applied as a suitable measure for the compatibility of elastomers and fluids.