River Downstream (river + downstream)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Antidepressants and their metabolites in municipal wastewater, and downstream exposure in an urban watershed

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 1 2010
Chris D. Metcalfe
Abstract Antidepressants are a widely prescribed group of pharmaceuticals that can be biotransformed in humans to biologically active metabolites. In the present study, the distribution of six antidepressants (venlafaxine, bupropion, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, and paroxetine) and five of their metabolites was determined in a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and at sites downstream of two WWTPs in the Grand River watershed in southern Ontario, Canada. Fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) caged in the Grand River downstream of a WWTP were also evaluated for accumulated antidepressants. Finally, drinking water was analyzed from a treatment plant that takes its water from the Grand River 17 km downstream of a WWTP. In municipal wastewater, the antidepressant compounds present in the highest concentrations (i.e., >0.5 µg/L) were venlafaxine and its two demethylation products, O - and N -desmethyl venlafaxine. Removal rates of the target analytes in a WWTP were approximately 40%. These compounds persisted in river water samples collected at sites up to several kilometers downstream of discharges from WWTPs. Venlafaxine, citalopram, and sertraline, and demethylated metabolites were detected in fathead minnows caged 10 m below the discharge from a WWTP, but concentrations were all <7 µg/kg wet weight. Venlafaxine and bupropion were detected at very low (<0.005 µg/L) concentrations in untreated drinking water, but these compounds were not detected in treated drinking water. The present study illustrates that data are needed on the distribution in the aquatic environment of both the parent compound and the biologically active metabolites of pharmaceuticals. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2010;29:79,89. © 2009 SETAC [source]


Using a fluctuating tracer to estimate hyporheic exchange in restored and unrestored reaches of the Truckee River, Nevada, USA

HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 8 2009
Andrew E. Knust
Abstract The goal of this research was to compare hyporheic activity in recently restored and adjacent un-restored reaches of the Truckee River downstream from the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area. The installation of rocky riffles and raised channel bed elevations in the restored reaches may have increased the degree of surface,subsurface interaction. A fluctuating chloride concentration signal served as the tracer, induced by the variable influx of higher salinity water several miles upstream from the study reach. The solute transport model, OTIS, was used in conjunction with the hydrodynamic model, DYNHYD5, to estimate transient storage parameters under unsteady flow conditions. The model was calibrated to chloride concentrations measured over a period of three days at six in-stream locations representing restored and un-restored reaches. An automated parameter estimation algorithm (SCE-UA) was used to optimize parameters for multiple reaches simultaneously and generate a distribution of parameter estimates. Results suggest that the transient storage zone cross-sectional area (As) is larger in the restored reaches than in the unrestored reaches, but the exchange coefficient (,) is smaller, leading to increased hyporheic residence time and hydrologic retention in the vicinity of channel reconstructions. Scenarios were used to simulate the potential effects of increased subsurface residence time on denitrification and in-stream NO3 -N concentrations. Monte Carlo analysis was performed to assess uncertainty in the simulation results and show the potential for greater nutrient retention in the lower Truckee River as a result of channel restoration. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Ecotoxicologic impacts of agricultural drain water in the Salinas River, California, USA

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 10 2003
Brian S. Anderson
Abstract The Salinas River is the largest of the three rivers that drain into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in central California (USA). Large areas of this watershed are cultivated year-round in row crops, and previous laboratory studies have demonstrated that acute toxicity of agricultural drain water to Ceriodaphnia dubia is caused by the organophosphate (OP) pesticides chlorpyrifos and diazinon. We investigated chemical contamination and toxicity in waters and sediments in the river downstream of an agricultural drain water input. Ecological impacts of drain water were investigated by using bioassessments of macroinvertebrate community structure. Toxicity identification evaluations were used to characterize chemicals responsible for toxicity. Salinas River water downstream of the agricultural drain was acutely toxic to the cladoceran Ceriodaphnia dubia, and toxicity to C. dubia was highly correlated with combined toxic units (TUs) of chlorpyrifos and diazinon. Laboratory tests were used to demonstrate that sediments in this system were acutely toxic to the amphipod Hyalella azteca, a resident invertebrate. Toxicity identification evaluations (TIEs) conducted on sediment pore water suggested that toxicity to amphipods was due in part to OP pesticides; concentrations of chlorpyrifos in pore water sometimes exceeded the 10-d mean lethal concentration (LC50) for H. azteca. Potentiation of toxicity with addition of the metabolic inhibitor piperonyl butoxide suggested that sediment toxicity also was due to other non,metabolically activated compounds. Macroinvertebrate community structure was highly impacted downstream of the agricultural drain input, and a number of macroinvertebrate community metrics were negatively correlated with combined TUs of chlorpyrifos and diazinon, as well as turbidity associated with the drain water. Some macroinvertebrate metrics were also correlated with bank vegetation cover. This study suggests that pesticide pollution is the likely cause of ecological damage in the Salinas River, and this factor may interact with other stressors associated with agricultural drain water to impact the macroinvertebrate community in the system. [source]


Erosion and Nutrient Loss on Sloping Land under Intense Cultivation in Southern Vietnam

GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2008
NGUYEN VAN DE
Abstract To help improve the well-being of the local people, a joint Vietnamese-UK team set out to establish a way of estimating soil and nutrient losses under different land management scenarios, using field data extrapolated through remote sensing and GIS, to obtain catchment-wide estimates of the impact of land cover change. Immigration from remote provinces to the Dong Phu District of Binh Phuóc Province, about 120 km north of Ho Chi Minh City, has led to disruption of soil surface stability on easily eroded clayey sandstones, creating rapid nutrient depletion that affects crop yields and siltation in the channel of the Rach Rat river downstream. The poor farmers of the areas see crop yields drop dramatically after two or three years of cultivation due to the fertility decline. Soil loss varies dramatically between wet season and dry season and with ground cover. Erosion bridge measurements showed a mean loss of 85.2 t ha,1 y,1 under cassava saplings with cashew nuts, 43.3 t ha,1 y,1 on uncultivated land and 41.7 t ha,1 y,1 under mature cassava. The rates of erosion were higher than those reported in many other parts of Vietnam, reflecting the high erodibility of the friable sandy soils on the steep side-slopes of the Rach Rat catchment. However, although the actual measurements provide better soil loss data than estimates based on the parameters of soil loss equations, a large number of measurement sites is needed to provide adequate coverage of the crop and slope combinations in this dissected terrain for good prediction using GIS and remote sensing. [source]


WATER QUALITY IMPACTS AND INDICATORS OF METABOLIC ACTIVITY OF THE ZEBRA MUSSEL INVASION OF THE SENECA RIVER,

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 3 2004
Steven W. Effler
ABSTRACT: The conspicuous shifts in summertime values of common measures of water qualify that have persisted for 10 years (1993 to 2002) in the Seneca River, New York, as a result of the zebra mussel invasion are documented. Resolution of patterns in time and space is supported by water quality monitoring that extends back to the late 1970s. Patterns are evaluated to describe the stability of impacts and quantify metabolic activity of the invader. The water quality impacts that have persisted unabated for 10 years since the invasion are the most severe documented for a river in North America. Changes in summer median conditions since the invasion include: (1) a 16-fold decrease in chlorophyll concentration (Chi), (2) a 2.5-fold increase in Secchi disc transparency, (3) a 17-fold increase in soluble reactive phosphorus concentration, (4) a 3.7-fold increase in total ammonia concentration, (5) a greater than 25 percent decrease in dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration, and (6) a decrease in pH of 0.55 units. The strength of these signatures has been driven by anthropogenic influences that include upstream nutrient loading and morphometric modifications of the river, and the functioning of Cross Lake, through which the river flows. This hypereutrophic lake sustains dense zebra mussel populations and related water quality impacts in the river downstream of the lake outflow by acting as a source of veligers and suitable food for this bivalve. Evidence is presented that levels of metabolic activity of the zebra mussel in this river have been resource limited, manifested through increased consumption of Chl and DO with increased delivery of these constituents in the lake's outflow. [source]