The association of weather and bathing water quality on the incidence of gastrointestinal illness in the west of Scotland.

SUMMARY: The associations with weather and bathing water quality on infectious intestinal disease (IID) were investigated using data from two Scottish NHS Board areas. Monthly counts of viral and non-viral gastrointestinal infections were modelled as a smooth function of temperature, relative humidity and average monthly counts of faecal indicator organisms, respectively, adjusting for season and long-term trend effects. Strong seasonal patterns were observed for each group of pathogens. Peak viral gastrointestinal infection was in May while that of non-viral gastrointestinal infections was in July. A statistically significant negative association existed between weather (temperature and humidity) and viral infection. Average levels of non-viral gastrointestinal infections increased as temperature and relative humidity increased. Increasing levels of faecal indicator organisms in bathing waters were also associated with an increase in the average number of viral and non-viral gastrointestinal infections at the ecological level. Future climate change and prolonged precipitation events may result in increasing levels of faecal indicator organisms in bathing waters leading to likely increases in IIDs.

The production and degradation of trichloroacetic acid in soil: results from in situ soil column experiments.

Previous work has indicated that the soil is important to understanding biogeochemical fluxes of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) in the rural environment, in forests in particular. Here, the hydrological and TCA fluxes through 22 in situ soil columns in a forest and moorland-covered catchment and an agricultural grassland field in Scotland were monitored every 2 weeks for several months either as controls or in TCA manipulation (artificial dosing) experiments. This was supplemented by laboratory experiments with radioactively-labelled TCA and with irradiated (sterilised) soil columns. Control in situ forest soil columns showed evidence of net export (i.e. in situ production) of TCA, consistent with a net soil TCA production inferred from forest-scale mass balance estimations. At the same time, there was also clear evidence of substantial in situ degradation within the soil ( approximately 70% on average) of applied TCA. The laboratory experiments showed that both the formation and degradation processes operate on time scales of up to a few days and appeared related more with biological rather than abiotic processes. Soil TCA activity was greater in more organic-rich soils, particularly within forests, and there was strong correlation between TCA and soil biomass carbon content. Overall it appears that TCA soil processes exemplify the substantial natural biogeochemical cycling of chlorine within soils, independent of any anthropogenic chlorine flux.

Extreme value theory applied to the definition of bathing water quality discounting limits.

The European Community Bathing Water Directive (European Parliament, 2006) set compliance standards for bathing waters across Europe, with minimum standards for microbiological indicators to be attained at all locations by 2015. The Directive allows up to 15% of samples affected by short-term pollution episodes to be disregarded from the figures used to classify bathing waters, provided certain management criteria have been met, including informing the public of short-term water pollution episodes. Therefore, a scientifically justifiable discounting limit is required which could be used as a management tool to determine the samples that should be removed. This paper investigates different methods of obtaining discounting limits, focusing in particular on extreme value methodology applied to data from Scottish bathing waters. Return level based limits derived from threshold models applied at a site-specific level improved the percentage of sites which met at least the minimum required standard. This approach provides a method of obtaining limits which identify the samples that should be removed from compliance calculations, although care has to be taken in terms of the quantity of data which is removed.

Potentially toxic metals in ombrotrophic peat along a 400 km English-Scottish transect.

Four samples of ombrotrophic peat were collected from each of 10 upland locations in a transect from the southern Pennines to the Highland Boundary Fault, a total distance of ca. 400 km. Bulk compositions and other properties were determined. Total contents of Al and heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb) were determined following digestion with hydrofluoric acid, and concentrations of metals extractable with dilute nitric acid were also measured. Supernatants obtained from aqueous extractions of the peat samples were analysed for pH, major cations and anions, dissolved organic carbon and dissolved metals, and concentrations of free metal ions (Al(3+), Ni(2+), etc.) were estimated by applying a chemical speciation model. Both total and HNO(3)-extractable metal concentrations varied along the transect, the highest values being found at locations close to industrial and former mining areas. The HNO(3)-extractable soil metal contents of Ni, Cu and Cd were appreciably lower than lowest-observed-effect-concentrations (LOEC) for toxicity towards microorganisms in acid, organic rich soils. However, the contents of Zn at two locations, and of Pb at five locations exceeded LOECs, suggesting that they may be exerting toxic effects in the peats. Soil solution concentrations of free heavy metal ions (Cu(2+), Zn(2+), Cd(2+), Pb(2+)) were substantially lower than LOECs for toxicity towards vascular plants, whereas concentrations of Al(3+) were near to toxic levels at two locations.

Fluxes of trichloroacetic acid through a conifer forest canopy.

Controlled-dosing experiments with conifer seedlings have demonstrated an above-ground route of uptake for trichloroacetic acid (TCA) from aqueous solution into the canopy, in addition to uptake from the soil. The aim of this work was to investigate the loss of TCA to the canopy in a mature conifer forest exposed only to environmental concentrations of TCA by analysing above- and below-canopy fluxes of TCA and within-canopy instantaneous reservoir of TCA. Concentrations and fluxes of TCA were quantified for one year in dry deposition, rainwater, cloudwater, throughfall, stemflow and litterfall in a 37-year-old Sitka spruce and larch plantation in SW Scotland. Above-canopy TCA deposition was dominated by rainfall (86%), compared with cloudwater (13%) and dry deposition (1%). On average only 66% of the TCA deposition passed through the canopy in throughfall and stemflow (95% and 5%, respectively), compared with 47% of the wet precipitation depth. Consequently, throughfall concentration of TCA was, on average, approximately 1.4 x rainwater concentration. There was no significant difference in below-canopy fluxes between Sitka spruce and larch, or at a forest-edge site. Annual TCA deposited from the canopy in litterfall was only approximately 1-2% of above-canopy deposition. On average, approximately 800 microg m(-2) of deposited TCA was lost to the canopy per year, compared with estimates of above-ground TCA storage of approximately 400 and approximately 300 microg m(-2) for Sitka spruce and larch, respectively. Taking into account likely uncertainties in these values ( approximately +/- 50%), these data yield an estimate for the half-life of within-canopy elimination of TCA in the range 50-200 days, assuming steady-state conditions and that all TCA lost to the canopy is transferred into the canopy material, rather than degraded externally. The observations provide strong indication that an above-ground route is important for uptake of TCA specifically of atmospheric origin into mature forest canopies, as has been shown for seedlings (in addition to uptake from soil via transpiration), and that annualized within-canopy elimination is similar to that in controlled-dosing experiments.

Trichloroacetic acid cycling in Sitka spruce saplings and effects on sapling health following long term exposure.

Trichloroacetic acid (TCA, CCl(3)COOH) has been associated with forest damage but the source of TCA to trees is poorly characterised. To investigate the routes and effects of TCA uptake in conifers, 120 Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr) saplings were exposed to control, 10 or 100 microg l(-1) solutions of TCA applied twice weekly to foliage only or soil only over two consecutive 5-month growing seasons. At the end of each growing season similar elevated TCA concentrations (approximate range 200-300 ng g(-1) dwt) were detected in both foliage and soil-dosed saplings exposed to 100 microg l(-1) TCA solutions showing that TCA uptake can occur from both exposure routes. Higher TCA concentrations in branchwood of foliage-dosed saplings suggest that atmospheric TCA in solution is taken up indirectly into conifer needles via branch and stemwood. TCA concentrations in needles declined slowly by only 25-30% over 6 months of winter without dosing. No effect of TCA exposure on sapling growth was measured during the experiment. However at the end of the first growing season needles of saplings exposed to 10 or 100 microg l(-1) foliage-applied TCA showed significantly more visible damage, higher activities of some detoxifying enzymes, lower protein contents and poorer water control than needles of saplings dosed with the same TCA concentrations to the soil. At the end of each growing season the combined TCA storage in needles, stemwood, branchwood and soil of each sapling was <6% of TCA applied. Even with an estimated half-life of tens of days for within-sapling elimination of TCA during the growing season, this indicates that TCA is eliminated rapidly before uptake or accumulates in another compartment. Although TCA stored in sapling needles accounted for only a small proportion of TCA stored in the sapling/soil system it appears to significantly affect some measures of sapling health.

Fluxes and reservoirs of trichloroacetic acid at a forest and moorland catchment.

The concentrations and input/output fluxes of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) were measured in all relevant media for one year at a 0.86 km2 upland conifer plantation and moorland catchment in SW Scotland (n > 380 separate samples analyzed). Annual wet precipitation to the catchment was 2.5 and 0.4 m for rain and cloud, respectively. TCA input to the catchment for the year was 2100 g, predominantly in rainwater (86%), with additional input via cloudwater (13%) and gas plus particle dry deposition (1%). There were no seasonal trends in TCA deposition, and cloudwater concentration was not enhanced over rainwater. TCA in precipitation exceeded concentrations estimated using currently accepted routes of gas-phase oxidation from anthropogenic chlorinated hydrocarbon precursors, in agreement with previous studies. Export of TCA from the catchment in streamwater totalled 1970 g for the year of study. The TCA concentration in streamwater at outflow (median 1.2 microg L(-1)) was significantly greater than that before the stream had passed through the conifer plantation. To well-within measurement uncertainties, the catchment is currently at steady-state with respect to TCA input/output. The catchment reservoir of TCA was dominated by soils (approximately 90%), with the remainder distributed in forest litter (approximately 9%), forest branchwood and stemwood (approximately 0.7%), forest foliage (approximately 0.5%), and moorland foliage (approximately 0.1%). Although TCA is clearly taken up into foliage, which consequently may be important for the vegetation, this was a relatively minor process for TCA at the catchment scale. If it is assumed, on the basis of laboratory extraction experiments, that only approximately 20% of "whole soil" TCA measured in this work was water extractable, then total mass of TCA in the catchment is reduced from approximately 13 to approximately 3.5 kg. Comparing the latter value with the annual flux yields an average steady-state residence time for TCA in the catchment of approximately 1-2 y, if all TCA is involved in catchment turnover. Considering that other evidence indicates the lifetime of TCA in soil and biota is considerably shorter than this (weeks rather than years), the magnitude of the TCA reservoir is suggested to be strong evidence for net natural TCA production in soils and/or that the majority of TCA in the reservoir is not involved with external fluxes.