[Concentrations and Distribution of Metals in the Core Sediments from Estuary and City Section of Liaohe River].

The particle size, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), C/N ratio and metal concentrations as well as activities of 210Pb were determined in Liaohe River estuary area (LN-2) and Shenyang area (LN-5), and the organic matter resources were discussed in two core sediments. Also the index of geoaccumulation (Igeo) and enrichment factors (EFs) methods were applied to evaluate the state of heavy metal contamination in the studied sties. The study showed that both sediment cores LN-2 and LN-5 were dominated by silts, and the vertical variations of grain-size composition and organic matter were well distributed in LN- 2 while fluctuated in LN-5. According to the organic matter source analysis through C/N ratio, C/N ratio varied in the scale of 5. 24-7.93 in LN-2 which was dominated by river source, and 9.94-14.21 in LN-5 which was dominated by terrestrial input. Al, Ca, Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and Cr in two sediment cores had different vertical changing rules, Ni and Zn in LN-2 as well as Pb and Zn in LN-5 were affected by both natural and human factors, other elements had similar distributions to those of organic matters, which showed that these elements were mainly affected by the natural activities. Based on Igeo and EFs, both sediment cores were more severely polluted with Ni, Zn and Pb than other metals. The effects of human activities on the environment were also discussed in this study, combined with the economical development of Liaoning Province and the studied sites in the past 20 years.

Development of aquatic life criteria for triclosan and comparison of the sensitivity between native and non-native species.

Triclosan (TCS) is an antimicrobial agent which is used as a broad-spectrum bacteriostatic and found in personal care products, and due to this it is widely spread in the aquatic environment. However, there is no paper dealing with the aquatic life criteria of TCS, mainly result from the shortage of toxicity data of different taxonomic levels. In the present study, toxicity data were obtained from 9 acute toxicity tests and 3 chronic toxicity tests using 9 Chinese native aquatic species from different taxonomic levels, and the aquatic life criteria was derived using 3 methods. Furthermore, differences of species sensitivity distributions (SSD) between native and non-native species were compared. Among the tested species, demersal fish Misgurnus anguillicaudatus was the most sensitive species, and the fishes were more sensitive than the aquatic invertebrates of Annelid and insect, and the insect was the least sensitive species. The comparison showed that there was no significant difference between SSDs constructed from native and non-native taxa. Finally, a criterion maximum concentration of 0.009 mg/L and a criterion continuous concentration of 0.002 mg/L were developed based on different taxa, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

[N2O exchange fluxes from wheat-maize crop rotation system in the North China Plain].

N2O exchange fluxes from the intensively cultivated winter wheat-summer maize crop rotation system in the North China Plain were measured by the static chamber technique under normal fertilization treatment and normal fertilization combined with straw returning treatment. The results indicated that the cumulative emissions of N2O from normal fertilization treatment and normal fertilization combined with straw returning treatment were 7.61 kg x hm(-2) and 12.6 kg x hm(-2), respectively. The increased N2O from the straw returning mainly occurred during the maize growing season. The N2O emission during the maize growing season from the two fertilization treatments accounted for 57% - 86% of the annual N2O cumulative emission, which indicated that the annual emission of N2O mainly occurred during the maize growing season. Total N2O emission after 10 days of each fertilization accounted for about 71% - 88% of the annual emission. It is obvious that the application of existing chemical fertilizers greatly promoted the N2O emissions in the North China Plain.