High Antipredatory Efficiency of Insular Lizards: A Warning Signal of Excessive Specimen Collection?

We live-captured lizards on islands in the Gulf of California and the Baja California peninsula mainland, and compared their ability to escape predation. Contrary to expectations, endemic lizard species from uninhabited islands fled from humans earlier and more efficiently than those from peninsular mainland areas. In fact, 58.2% (n = 146) of the lizards we tried to capture on the various islands escaped successfully, while this percentage was only 14.4% (n = 160) on the peninsular mainland. Separate evidence (e.g., proportion of regenerated tails, low human population at the collection areas, etc.) challenges several potential explanations for the higher antipredatory efficiency of insular lizards (e.g., more predation pressure on islands, habituation to humans on the peninsula, etc.). Instead, we suggest that the ability of insular lizards to avoid predators may be related to harvesting by humans, perhaps due to the value of endemic species as rare taxonomic entities. If this hypothesis is correct, predation-related behavioral changes in rare species could provide early warning signals of their over-exploitation, thus encouraging the adoption of conservation measures

The zeolite-anammox treatment process for nitrogen removal from wastewater-A review

Water quality in San Francisco Bay has been adversely affected by nitrogen loading from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) discharging around the periphery of the Bay. While there is documented use of zeolites and anammox bacteria in removing ammonia and possibly nitrate during wastewater treatment, there is little information available about the combined process. Though relatively large, zeolite beds have a finite ammonium adsorption potential and require periodic re-generation depending on the wastewater nitrogen loading. Use of anammox bacteria reactors for wastewater treatment have shown that ammonium (and to some degree, nitrate) can be successfully removed from the wastewater, but the reactors require careful attention to loading rates and internal redox conditions. Generally, their application has been limited to treatment of high-ammonia strength wastewater at relatively warm temperatures. Moreover, few studies are available describing commercial or full-scale application of these reactors. We briefly review the literature considering use of zeolites or anammox bacteria in wastewater treatment to set the stage for description of an integrated zeolite-anammox process used to remove both ammonium and nitrate without substrate regeneration from mainstream WWTP effluent or anaerobic digester filtrate at ambient temperatures

The zeolite-anammox treatment process for nitrogen removal from wastewater-A review

Water quality in San Francisco Bay has been adversely affected by nitrogen loading from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) discharging around the periphery of the Bay. While there is documented use of zeolites and anammox bacteria in removing ammonia and possibly nitrate during wastewater treatment, there is little information available about the combined process. Though relatively large, zeolite beds have a finite ammonium adsorption potential and require periodic re-generation depending on the wastewater nitrogen loading. Use of anammox bacteria reactors for wastewater treatment have shown that ammonium (and to some degree, nitrate) can be successfully removed from the wastewater, but the reactors require careful attention to loading rates and internal redox conditions. Generally, their application has been limited to treatment of high-ammonia strength wastewater at relatively warm temperatures. Moreover, few studies are available describing commercial or full-scale application of these reactors. We briefly review the literature considering use of zeolites or anammox bacteria in wastewater treatment to set the stage for description of an integrated zeolite-anammox process used to remove both ammonium and nitrate without substrate regeneration from mainstream WWTP effluent or anaerobic digester filtrate at ambient temperatures

Upscaling the zeolite-anammox process: Treatment of secondary effluent

Water quality in San Francisco Bay is reportedly adversely affected by nitrogen loading from the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) discharging around the periphery of the Bay. Here, we consider a zeolite-anammox system to remove ammonia and nitrate from secondary-treated wastewater at ambient temperatures (12-30 °C). Until now, use of anammox bacteria has been largely limited to treatment of high-ammonia content wastewater at warm temperatures (30-40 °C). Specifically, we investigate upscaling the zeolite-anammox system to nitrogen removal from relatively low-ammonia content (~35 NH3-N mg/L) effluent using gravity-fed 0.7 m wide and 0.17 m deep linear-channel reactors within pilot plants located at either the WWTP or some eight kilometers away. Following establishment, we monitored ammonia and nitrate concentrations along one reactor bi-weekly and only inflow-outflow concentrations at the other for more than a year. We found nearly complete ammonia removal within the first 22 m of reactor consistent with the theoretical 89% nitrogen removal capacity associated with the nitrogen-conversion stoichiometry of anammox bacteria. We also determined degradation parameters of a constant 1.41 mg NH3-N/L per hour in the first 15 m, or 20.7 g NH3-N/m3/day for overall reactor volume. At the higher flowrate of the second reactor, we achieved a removal rate of 42 g NH3-N/m3/day. Overall, the linear-channel reactors operated with minimal maintenance, no additional energy inputs (e.g., for aeration) and consistently achieved NH3-N discharge concentrations ~1 mg/L despite fluctuating temperatures and WWTP effluent concentrations of 20-75 mg NH3-N/L

Upscaling the zeolite-anammox process: Treatment of secondary effluent

Water quality in San Francisco Bay is reportedly adversely affected by nitrogen loading from the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) discharging around the periphery of the Bay. Here, we consider a zeolite-anammox system to remove ammonia and nitrate from secondary-treated wastewater at ambient temperatures (12-30 °C). Until now, use of anammox bacteria has been largely limited to treatment of high-ammonia content wastewater at warm temperatures (30-40 °C). Specifically, we investigate upscaling the zeolite-anammox system to nitrogen removal from relatively low-ammonia content (~35 NH3-N mg/L) effluent using gravity-fed 0.7 m wide and 0.17 m deep linear-channel reactors within pilot plants located at either the WWTP or some eight kilometers away. Following establishment, we monitored ammonia and nitrate concentrations along one reactor bi-weekly and only inflow-outflow concentrations at the other for more than a year. We found nearly complete ammonia removal within the first 22 m of reactor consistent with the theoretical 89% nitrogen removal capacity associated with the nitrogen-conversion stoichiometry of anammox bacteria. We also determined degradation parameters of a constant 1.41 mg NH3-N/L per hour in the first 15 m, or 20.7 g NH3-N/m3/day for overall reactor volume. At the higher flowrate of the second reactor, we achieved a removal rate of 42 g NH3-N/m3/day. Overall, the linear-channel reactors operated with minimal maintenance, no additional energy inputs (e.g., for aeration) and consistently achieved NH3-N discharge concentrations ~1 mg/L despite fluctuating temperatures and WWTP effluent concentrations of 20-75 mg NH3-N/L

Empirical Sediment Transport Models Based on Indoor Rainfall Simulator and Erosion Flume Experimental Data

WOS: 000401322900014Land degradation processes start with accelerated runoff and sediment delivery. In this study, rainfall-runoff induced sediment transport is investigated using data from an indoor laboratory experimental setup consisting of a rainfall simulator and an erosion flume. The data are analysed to develop empirical models using sediment discharge, slope, flow discharge, rainfall intensity and sediment size. Fine and medium sands are considered as bare soil in experiments. Four rainfall intensities (45, 65, 85 and 105mmh(-1)) are applied with combinations of lateral and longitudinal slopes of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. Eighty experiments are conducted. Flow is measured, and sediment within flow is separated and weighted. Experimental data are used for developing empirical models through multiple regression with parameters optimized by genetic algorithm. Results show that slope is the main contributing variable to the sediment transport over hillslopes. Accommodating variables among slope, rainfall intensity, flow discharge and median diameter of sediment as independent variables, one-variable, two-variable and four-variable models are developed considering also that higher number of parameters increases the performance of the model with higher cost of parameterization. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.TUBITAK (Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [108Y250]; Korean NRF (National Research Foundation)This study is based on the international project 'Development of a hillslope-scale sediment transport model' bilaterally supported by TUBITAK (Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, project no. 108Y250) and Korean NRF (National Research Foundation). Two reviewers and the editor have contributed to this paper with constructive comments and suggestions for which the authors deeply thank