Effect of Land Application of Poultry Waste on Pesticide Loss

The poultry industry in Arkansas is a large, concentrated, growing industry that produces a high volume of fecal waste. Most of this waste is surface applied as pasture fertilizer. Pesticides are commonly used in the poultry industry for fly and litter beetle contro land are often a component of the surface-applied poultry waste. No information exists in the scientific literature regarding the transport of this pesticide component to nearby water supplies.Our research focused on cyromazine, a feed-through larvicide used to control flies in caged-layer hen houses. Tetrachlorvinphos and carbaryl are also used in poultry waste, but these pesticides have a relatively low solubility in water and rapid decomposition rate. Cyromazine, however, is highly soluble and stable in water. Since it may be readily washed from the pasture by heavy rainfall and may persist in surface and soil water, cyromazine appears to be potentially a much greater long-term threat to water quality than either carbaryl or tetrachlorvinphos. Therefore, the objective of this investigation was to examine the extent of cyromazine loss as a result of land application of caged layer manure. To quantify cyromazine loss from pasture plots treated with caged layer manure,research was conducted at the University of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station at Fayetteville. Plots of uniform slope were bordered to isolate surface runoff, fitted with runoff collectors, and established in fescue pasture. Suction lysimeters were placed at the 60 cm depth to sample soil water in the unsaturated zone. Caged layer manure was analyzed for cyromazine concentration and applied to the plots at three different rates. Rainfall was applied by simulator at two intensities. Surface runoff and lysimeter samples were measured and analyzed for cyromazine concentration. A solid phase extraction procedure was used to separate the cyromazine from the water samples and analysis was done by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results showed that a heavier manure application increased both the runoff and cyromazine concentration. Higher rainfall intensity also increased total cyromazine loss in the runoff, but provided enough runoff volume to decrease the cyromazine concentration. Soil water from the unsaturated zone was monitored for a year following the manure application, but neither cyromazine nor its metabolite, melamine, were detected

Assessment of Effectiveness of Buffer Zones in Removing Impurities in Runoff from Areas Treated with Poultry Litter. Part II: Source Areas to Buffer Areas Ratio Effects

Vegetative filter strips (VFS) are known to reduce runoff losses of nutrients. solids. and other materials from land areas treated with fertilizers . Although VFS effectiveness is known to depend partially on the relative lengths of filter and pollutant source areas. there is little experimental evidence available to quantify this dependence. This is particularly the case when VFS are implemented down-slope of pasture areas treated with animal manures such as poultry litter. This study assessed the influences of pollutant source area (treated with poultry litter) and VFS lengths on VFS removal of total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN). ammonia nitrogen (NH3 -N ). nitrate nitrogen (N03-N). ortho-phosphorus (P04-P). total phosphorus (TP). total organic carbon (TOC). total suspended solids (TSS). and fecal coliform (FC) fromincoming runoff for a silt loam soil with fescue cover. Litter-treated lengths of 6.1. 12.2. and 18.3 m with corresponding VFS lengths of up to 18.3 m. 12.2 m. and 6.1 m. respectively, were examined. Runoff was produced from simulated rainfall applied at 50 mm/h for 1 h of runoff. Concentrations of the parameters analyzed were unaffected by litter treated length but demonstrated a first-order decrease with increasing VFS length except in the cases of TSS and FC. Mass transport of TKN. NH3-N. P04-P. and TP increased with increasing litter-treated length (due to increased runoff) and decreased (approximately first-order) with increasing VFS length. Effectiveness of the VFS in terms of TKN. NH3-N. P04 -P. and TP removal from runoff ranged from 6.5 to 96.3% depending on the particular parameter. litter-treated length. and VFS length. The data collected during this study can be helpful in developing and testing simulation models of VFS performance and can thus aid in design of VFS for pasture areas treated with poultry litter

Pyrolysis of Wastewater Biosolids Significantly Reduces Estrogenicity

Most wastewater treatment processes are not specifically designed to remove micropollutants. Many micropollutants are hydrophobic so they remain in the biosolids and are discharged to the environment through land-application of biosolids. Micropollutants encompass a broad range of organic chemicals, including estrogenic compounds (natural and synthetic) that reside in the environment, a.k.a. environmental estrogens. Public concern over land application of biosolids stemming from the occurrence of micropollutants hampers the value of biosolids which are important to wastewater treatment plants as a valuable by-product. This research evaluated pyrolysis, the partial decomposition of organic material in an oxygen-deprived system under high temperatures, as a biosolids treatment process that could remove estrogenic compounds from solids while producing a less hormonally active biochar for soil amendment. The estrogenicity, measured in estradiol equivalents (EEQ) by the yeast estrogen screen (YES) assay, of pyrolyzed biosolids was compared to primary and anaerobically digested biosolids. The estrogenic responses from primary solids and anaerobically digested solids were not statistically significantly different, but pyrolysis of anaerobically digested solids resulted in a significant reduction in EEQ; increasing pyrolysis temperature from 100 °C to 500 °C increased the removal of EEQ with greater than 95% removal occurring at or above 400 °C. This research demonstrates that biosolids treatment with pyrolysis would substantially decrease (removal \u3e 95%) the estrogens associated with this biosolids product. Thus, pyrolysis of biosolids can be used to produce a valuable soil amendment product, biochar, that minimizes discharge of estrogens to the environment

Trust with Private and Common Property: Effects of Stronger Property Right Entitlements

Is mutually beneficial cooperation in trust games more prevalent with private property or common property? Does the strength of property right entitlement affect the answer? Cox, Ostrom, Walker, et al. [1] report little difference between cooperation in private and common property trust games. We assign stronger property right entitlements by requiring subjects to meet a performance quota in a real effort task to earn their endowments. We find that cooperation is lower in common property trust games than in private property trust games, which is an idiosyncratic prediction of revealed altruism theory [2].

Inferential tests and modelling of functional trait convergence along environmental gradients

The motivation for this paper comes from a recent study which indicated that the influence of environmental filtering should increase with decreasing soil fertility, based on the premise that individuals will employ a resource-retentive strategy in a less productive ecosystem. Mean annual temperature (MAT) is one indicator of the productivity of the ecosystem. We aim to build a more accurate model of environmental filter and want to statistically test whether the environmental filter is stronger when the MAT is lower compared to when it is higher. Our findings throw an interesting insight into how the trait variability changes as a function of MAT and how it could be better modelled

Macroscopic and microscopic studies of electrical properties of very thin silicon dioxide subject to electrical stress

The electrical characteristics of various size tunnel switch diode devices, composed of Al/SiO2/n-Si/p+-Si layers, which operate with a range of parameters (such as current densities in excess of 104 A/cm2) that stress the oxide layer far beyond the levels used in typical thin oxide metal-oxide semiconductor research have been examined. It is found that the first time a large current and electric field are applied to the device, a "forming" process enhances transport through the oxide in the vicinity of the edges of the gate electrode, but the oxide still retains its integrity as a tunnel barrier. The device operation is relatively stable to stresses of greater than 107 C/cm2 areally averaged, time-integrated charge injection. Duplication and characterization of these modified oxide tunneling properties was attempted using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to stress and probe the oxide. Electrical stressing with the STM tip creates regions of reduced conductivity, possibly resulting from trapped charge in the oxide. Lateral variations in the conductivity of the unstressed oxide over regions roughly 20–50 nm across were also found

The Possible Interstellar Anion CH2CN-: Spectroscopic Constants, Vibrational Frequencies, and Other Considerations

It is hypothesized that the A ^1B_1 <- X ^1A' excitation into the dipole-bound state of the cyanomethyl anion (CH2CN-) is proposed as the carrier for one diffuse interstellar band. However, this particular molecular system has not been detected in the interstellar medium even though the related cyanomethyl radical and the isoelectronic ketenimine molecule have been found. In this study we are employing the use of proven quartic force fields and second-order vibrational perturbation theory to compute accurate spectroscopic constants and fundamental vibrational frequencies for ^1A' CH2CN- in order to assist in laboratory studies and astronomical observations