Highly organic soils, and in particular ombrotrophic bogs, have been often used to reconstruct climate changes and heavy metal contaminations. Ombrotrophic peat bogs, in fact, are domed peatlands in which the surface layers are hydrologically isolated from the influence of local groundwaters and surface waters, and are supplied only by atmospheric depositions. In the present work, the attention of Authors has been focused on Pb, Cu, and Zn, coming mainly from anthropogenic activities, and ¹³⁷Cs, released mostly during the Chernobyl disaster. Practically, an undisturbed peat profile was cored in 2005 from a Swiss ombrotrophic bog and analysed using energy-dispersive miniprobe multielement analyzer X-ray fluorescence and Low Background γ-ray spectrometry in order to investigate and quantify the impact of human activities (e.g., industry, traffic, combustion of fossil fuels, “environmental disasters”) in causing Pb, Cu, Zn, and ¹³⁷Cs contaminations during the centuries. Obtained data show that highly organic soils in general, and ombrotrophic bogs in particular, reflect the anthropogenic inputs in heavy metal and radionuclide contaminations. In fact, these environments allowed to follow the depositional history of Pb, Cu, and Zn, both underlining a general increasing of their production since the Industrial Revolution, and remarking past single impacting events such as the introduction of leaded gasoline and of particular agricultural practices. Further, although ¹³⁷Cs showed a main peak corresponding to the Chernobyl disaster, confirming the role of bogs as archive of human activity, data revealed a certain mobility of this radionuclide along the profile. Thus, highly organic soils can be considered as both “witness” of the impact of human activity during centuries and indicator of the health of our planet.

A quasi steady state respiration test based on Fick's law with a correction term for advective flux, for estimating petroleum hydrocarbon degradation rates, was evaluated in a full-scale (3,000 m³) biopile study. A contaminated clayey sand soil with an average TPH content of 1,421 ± 260 mg kg-¹ soil was treated in a biopile with a fixed venting and heating system. Temperature in the biopile ranged from 12.1 to 36.6°C and soil water content from 15.2 to 35.8 m³ H₂O m-³ soil. Oxygen concentrations in the biopile showed a rapid decrease with depth, before venting and reached constant atmospheric concentration during venting. Measured oxygen consumption in the biopile ranged from -0.04 to -0.68 mol O₂ m-³ soil day-¹. Average oxygen consumption rates calculated with the quasi-steady-state method were significantly (P < 0.05) lower then the oxygen consumption rates calculated with the transient method. It was suggested that the oxygen diffusion was underestimated by the diffusivity models used and that further research is needed to determine relative effective diffusion coefficients in biopiles. Although both respiration testing and petroleum hydrocarbon concentration showed a decrease of oxygen consumption in time, the estimated degradation rate was low compared to the actual decrease in petroleum hydrocarbon concentration. Additional work will have to be done to acquire a more precise knowledge of the relationship between respirometrically determined degradation rates and the actual change in petroleum hydrocarbon concentration in the soil.

Long-term nutrient concentration trends and load variations at six monitoring stations on four canals in the Southern Indian River Lagoon (Florida, USA) were evaluated using the Estimate Trend (Estrend) and Load Estimator (Loadest) programs. The results of trend analysis on nutrient concentrations suggested that the nutrient trend patterns were spatially variable. Increasing trends were most often observed in orthophosphate and/or total phosphorus at five stations. Significantly increased annual loads were observed for orthophosphate at four stations from 1979 through 2004. The median concentrations of ammonia (0.05 to 0.10 mg l-¹) were greater than the State of Florida surface water quality criteria of class III freshwater body for ammonia. The median concentrations of total phosphorus (138 to 376 μg l-¹) were greater than the USEPA ambient water quality criteria recommendation for the study area (Nutrient Ecoregion XIII). Nutrient (phosphorus and nitrogen) loads observed in this study are likely to impair the water quality in the Southern Indian River Lagoon.

The atmosphere over Brazilian cities is influenced by a variety of emissions sources. In this study, aerosol collection and back-trajectory analysis were used to determine the influence of local and remote sources. Aerosols were collected at three locations within the state of São Paulo: one megacity and two cities in which sugar cane burning in the surroundings is observed. We quantified the major water-soluble inorganic ions and trace metals. As expected, vehicle emissions influenced the atmosphere of the megacity heavily, and sugar cane burning influenced that of the other locations. During the period of this experiment the back-trajectory analysis revealed that air masses are transported into the state from the northeast of Brazil, where biomass burning occurs. Multivariate statistical analysis revealed that the two principal components account for 48.5% of the total data variance. We conclude that local sources have a strong impact on the concentrations of particulate matter and pollutants. Remote sources also contribute to the concentrations of aerosol pollutants.

In 1998, the pond containing the ore wastes from a pyrite mine in Aznalcóllar (SW, Spain) broke open, spilling some 36×10⁵ m³ of acidic waters and 9 × 10⁵ m³ of tailings containing high concentrations of As and heavy metals. The affected area was around 55 km² of predominantly agricultural soils. After the clean-up of the tailings, many remediation actions were undertaken and the use of blocking agents to immobilize the As was one of the most extended measure. The first experiment performed was to determine the most important soil components in As adsorption under acidic conditions. A second experiment was conducted to neutralize the acidity caused by the solution coming from the tailings undergoing oxidation; an adequate liming material (sugar-refinery scum) was selected and the application rates were established. After the remediation measures, the zone was monitored for three years. A detailed study in four experimental plots located in the most polluted sector was carried out to test the influence of iron oxides in the As immobilization. The use of red soils of the area (rich in free-iron oxides Fed) was established as an appropriate material in the remediation of the area.

Heavy metal pollution in sediments derived from the Deûle canal and sampled at different sites not far from a smelting plant has been examined in the present work in order to identify the sources of these metals and to assess the sediment environmental quality. The total concentrations of lead, zinc, cadmium, thallium, indium and tin in the samples were determined using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Our investigations have revealed that metal pollution is readily apparent in the studied sediments, with metals contents largely exceeding those measured in the background soils: maximum values are obtained for sediments collected near the industrial zone. The chemical forms of Pb, Zn, Cd, Tl, In and Sn in these sediments have also been studied using a sequential extraction method in order to evaluate their possible mobility, bioavailability and toxicity in this aquatic environment. Overall, the averaged fractionation of Pb and Zn is dominated, in a decreasing order, by the easily reducible, oxidizable and carbonate fractions. The importance of oxidizable phase (which is assumed to be composed mainly of organic matter and sulphides) in the Pb and Zn fractionations has been confirmed by the detection of X-ray diffraction peaks ascribed to galena (PbS) and wurtzite (ZnS) in contaminated sediment samples. Anthropogenic Tl, In, and Cd are mainly retained in Fe–Mn oxides/hydroxides, whereas anthropogenic Sn predominates in aluminosilicates/clays. We suspect that elevated percentage levels of Pb, Zn, Cd and In in the reducible fraction constitute a particular potential risk to this aquatic environment in case early diagenetic phenomena (that are observed in the sedimentary material) and physical disturbances (that occur in the water column) both take place strongly in the medium.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate cost-effective reduction strategies for nitrogen oxides (NO x ) in the Asian region. The source-receptor relationships of the Lagrangian “puff” model of long-range transportation, ATMOS-N, were used to calculate the wet/dry deposition of the nitrogen (N) in Asia. Critical loads of N deposition in Asia were calculated from the relationships between the critical load of sulfur (S) and balance of N in and out using the data of S critical load of RAINS-ASIA. The cost functions of N reduction of Asian countries were derived by the regression analysis with the data of cost functions of European countries used in RAINS. In order to assess the environmental impact, the gaps between N deposition and critical load of N were calculated. The emission of NO x was reduced in some cases of this model, and the changes of gaps between N deposition and critical load were observed as well as the changes of the reduction cost. It is shown that a uniform reduction of NO x emissions by countries in Asia is not cost-effective strategy.

The consequences of nitrogen (N) enrichment for terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems are of increasing concern in many areas due to continued or increasing high emission rates of reactive N. Within terrestrial ecosystems various conceptual frameworks and modelling approaches have been developed which have enhanced our understanding of the sequence of changes associated with increased N availability and help us predict their future impacts. Here, some recent findings are described and their implications for these conceptual frameworks and modelling approaches discussed. They are: (a) an early loss of plant species that are characteristic of low N conditions as N availability increases and a loss of species with high N retention efficiencies (so called N 'filters'), (b) suppression of microbial immobilisation of deposited [graphic removed] due to increased [graphic removed] availability in the early stages of N saturation, (c) the early onset of [graphic removed] leaching due to these changes (a and b above) in both plant and microbial functioning, (d) reduced sensitivity of vegetation to N additions in areas with high historical N deposition, (e) delayed changes in soil C:N changes due to increased net primary productivity and reduced decomposition of soil organic matter. Some suggestions of early indicators of N saturation are suggested (occurrence of mosses; [graphic removed] ratio in surface soils) which indicate either a shift in ecosystem function and/or structure.