Geochronologies of pharmaceuticals in a sewage-impacted estuarine urban setting (Jamaica Bay, New York).

Pharmaceuticals are active substances found in sewage effluents and can negatively impact aquatic systems even at low concentrations. A fraction of these chemicals can be attached onto suspended solids and end up in sediments. This research shows concentrations of a wide group of pharmaceuticals in sediments from an urban estuarine setting (Jamaica Bay, New York). Highest concentrations (>75 ng g(-1)) were measured in surface sediments from the inner part of the bay, directly affected by sewage discharges and where water circulation is more restricted. Only 16 out of 61 target compounds were detected, and those positively charged (e.g., metoprolol) and/or highly hydrophobic (e.g., tamoxifen) were predominant. Their sediment-pore water partition coefficients were also calculated for the first time and were in a range between 11 and 2041 L/kg depending on the compound. Analysis of dated sediment cores revealed that pharmaceuticals were well preserved along the sedimentary column, a highly reducing environment. There was an increase in the concentration of most target compounds over the last five decades correlated with the increase in their usage, with some exceptions such as sulfamethazine (now used only for veterinary purposes). Thus, overall concentration of pharmaceuticals in sediment cores showed a doubling time of 9.2 years. Vertical distribution profiles for selected compounds also allowed reconstructing the history of contamination at Jamaica Bay by pharmaceuticals. The use of some of these chemicals as sewage molecular markers was also investigated.

Improving ecosystem health in highly altered river basins: a generalized framework and its application to the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin.

Continued large-scale public investment in declining ecosystems depends on demonstrations of "success". While the public conception of "success" often focuses on restoration to a pre-disturbance condition, the scientific community is more likely to measure success in terms of improved ecosystem health. Using a combination of literature review, workshops and expert solicitation we propose a generalized framework to improve ecosystem health in highly altered river basins by reducing ecosystem stressors, enhancing ecosystem processes and increasing ecosystem resilience. We illustrate the use of this framework in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB) of the central United States (U.S.), by (i) identifying key stressors related to human activities, and (ii) creating a conceptual ecosystem model relating those stressors to effects on ecosystem structure and processes. As a result of our analysis, we identify a set of landscape-level indicators of ecosystem health, emphasizing leading indicators of stressor removal (e.g., reduced anthropogenic nutrient inputs), increased ecosystem function (e.g., increased water storage in the landscape) and increased resilience (e.g., changes in the percentage of perennial vegetative cover). We suggest that by including these indicators, along with lagging indicators such as direct measurements of water quality, stakeholders will be better able to assess the effectiveness of management actions. For example, if both leading and lagging indicators show improvement over time, then management actions are on track to attain desired ecosystem condition. If, however, leading indicators are not improving or even declining, then fundamental challenges to ecosystem health remain to be addressed and failure to address these will ultimately lead to declines in lagging indicators such as water quality. Although our model and indicators are specific to the MARB, we believe that the generalized framework and the process of model and indicator development will be valuable in an array of altered river basins.

Atmospheric fluxes of (7)Be and (210)Pb on monthly time-scales and during rainfall events at Stony Brook, New York (USA).

The particle-reactive radionuclides (7)Be and (210)Pb have been employed extensively as tracers and chronometers for a variety of aquatic and terrestrial processes. Both radionuclides are delivered to the Earth's surface from the atmosphere, and in order to use them effectively as natural tracers, an understanding of variations in atmospheric fluxes of these radionuclides due to latitudinal differences and storm events is required. The monthly atmospheric fluxes of (7)Be and (210)Pb, measured from April-2008 to December-2009 at Stony Brook, NY, ranged from 67 to 385 Bq m(-2) and 6.7 to 16.7 Bq m(-2), respectively. Composite annual atmospheric fluxes over the sampling period were 3110 ± 1200 Bq m(-2) y(-1) for (7)Be and 146 ± 50 Bq m(-2) y(-1) for (210)Pb and were similar to geographically comparable sites. The monthly atmospheric fluxes of (7)Be and (210)Pb were significantly correlated with rainfall. The (7)Be/(210)Pb ratio in the monthly samples varied seasonally, with values of ∼10-11 during the winter months and ∼20-28 during the spring - fall. The pattern of seasonal variation in (7)Be fluxes and (7)Be/(210)Pb ratios is most consistent with that observed in surface air at continental sites in which more frequent deep convective storms occur during the summer and therefore result in an increased transport of (7)Be from the upper troposphere to the Earth's surface. An additional factor may be that the winds at Stony Brook were dominantly from the northwest during the winter of 2009 and so were characterized by low (7)Be/(210)Pb ratios while in the spring, winds from the southwest brought marine air with higher (7)Be/(210)Pb ratios to the sampling site. Fluxes of (7)Be and (210)Pb also were measured over two long (16-24 h) and two short (∼1 h) intense periods of rainfall in June and July 2009. Fluxes of (7)Be and (210)Pb continued throughout the short events, but the two radionuclides showed different patterns during the long events. While the entirety of the (210)Pb flux accumulated during the first ∼1 h, (7)Be continued to be accumulated over the course of both long events. The (7)Be/(210)Pb ratio ranged from 20 to ∼300 during the events and, in general, was considerably greater than the ratios measured in the monthly samples. Radar image snapshots taken during the events show cloud heights of 7-10.5 km, and the (7)Be/(210)Pb ratios measured in the precipitation are consistent with previous model estimates of (7)Be/(210)Pb ratios in aerosols at altitudes of 5-10 km (latitude 40°N). The data suggest that (210)Pb can be effectively stripped from the lower troposphere early in a rainfall event, but intense convective mixing and scavenging of (7)Be from the upper troposphere results in a continuous flux of (7)Be and elevated (7)Be/(210)Pb ratios as the event progresses.