Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:33:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:06:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Triclosan é um composto orgânico de baixa solubilidade que vem sendo utilizado em formulações de cremes dentais e faciais, xampu, sabonetes, embalagens de gêneros alimentícios e diversos tipos de materiais, tais como, adesivos, brinquedos, sapatos, selantes, tintas, colchão, roupas, pisos, toldos e rejuntes. O amplo uso deste composto deve-se à grande eficácia contra bactérias Gram negativas e Gram positivas. Por seu extenso uso, evidências da presença de Triclosan têm sido frequentemente relatadas em efluentes urbanos e industriais, águas superficiais e sedimentos de ambientes dulcícolas, estuarinos e marinhos, como também em organismos aquáticos como algas, peixes e mamíferos. Neste contexto, o presente estudo avaliou a toxicidade aguda e crônica de Triclosan para diferentes invertebrados marinhos de águas tropicais. Para tanto, ensaios de toxicidade aguda foram realizados com o copépodo Nitokra sp (mortalidade) e com o ouriço-do-mar Lytechinus variegatus (taxa de fertilização). Para a avaliação do efeito crônico, ensaios de toxicidade de curta duração (desenvolvimento embriolarval) foram realizados com o ouriço-do-mar L. variegatus e Perna perna. Além desses métodos, o ensaio do Tempo de Retenção do Corante Vermelho Neutro foi empregado com a finalidade de se avaliar os efeitos do Triclosan sobre a estabilidade da membrana lisossômica de hemócitos de P. perna. Na avaliação do efeito agudo, o valor médio da CL(I)50;96h encontrada para o copépodo foi de 0,20 mg.L-1 enquanto que o valor médio da CI(I)50;1h para ouriço-do-mar foi de 0,28 mg.L-1. Já na avaliação do efeito crônico, o valor médio da CI(I)50;24h para ouriço-do-mar foi de 0,14 mg.L-1 e para o molusco bivalve a média da CI(I)50;48h, foi de 0,13 mg.L-1. O efeito na estabilidade da membrana lisossômica de hemócitos de P. perna ocorreu em concentrações a partir de 12 ng.L-1. Estes resultados evidenciam o risco ecológico da introdução contínua desse composto em ambientes marinhos, e devem ser considerados para identificação de concentrações seguras e futura regulação do bactericida Triclosan na legislação ambiental nacional e internacional. / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Comprehensive year-round limnological investigations of Mountain Lake, Virginia were conducted from November 1992 through October 1994. Monthly physical, chemical, and biological measurements suggest that this ecosystem has shifted toward a more eutrophic condition. A trend in whole lake mean annual orthophosphate-phosphorus and inorganic nitrogen increases have occurred over the past decade, although primary productivity, cell densities, and chlorophyll a values indicate no consistent trends. Hypolimnetic oxygen deficits, however, have continued to increase over time, and in October 1994 the first measure of anoxic deep water was observed. Concurrently with the chemical changes, shifts in macrophytes and phytoplankton have occurred. Most notably were reductions in Nitella megacarpa and Dinobryon spp., an increase in Ceratophyllum sp., and a summer dominance of Sphaerocystis schroeteri and Aphanocapsa_ elachista. These two species represent algal classes, Chlorophyceae and Cyanophyceae, which have also increased in relative abundance and seasonal persistence in Mountain Lake. Nutrient addition studies conducted in 1994 indicated limiting concentrations of both phosphorus and inorganic nitrogen during most periods of thermal statification. Significant increases in primary productivity occurred within 48 hrs with the addition of K₂HPO₄ and/or NH₄NO₃ in the pico-, nano-, and microplankton size classes. The smaller size fractions (picoand nanoplankton) responded more strongly to the N enrichment, whereas the microplankton responded more with the P enrichment. In all cases, ammonium-N was the preferred inorganic nitrogen source during these Studies, as suggested from earlier studies of methylamine uptake in this lake. Studies of the importance of various phytoplankton size classes (pico-, nano-, micro-, and macro-) during thermal stratification indicated that the microphytoplankton were the most important size class in cell number, cell diversity, and contributed ~95% of the total primary productivity. The picophytoplankton were second in importance constituting ~5% of total primary productivity, whereas the relatively small numbers of nano- and macrophytoplankton contributed little primary productivity. This finding contrasts to many other oligotrophic ecosystems where the pico- and nanophytoplankton have demonstrated significantly greater importance. Increasing nutrient concentration, increasing hypolimnetic oxygen deficit, and shifting phytoplankton community structure suggest that Mountain Lake is entering the early stages of eutrophication. Continuation of increasing nutrient loads in this natural lake will potentially further shift this ecosystem toward eutrophic conditions. / Ph. D.

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Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science, 2011 / A multifactor ecological integrity index, focusing on freshwater ecosystems on a quaternary catchment scale, can be of great benefit to conservation planning. No ecological integrity index has previously been developed for South African quaternary catchments. In this study an index was developed based on three environmental surrogates: land cover, river integrity and fish species conservation status, with the intention of identifying quaternary catchments of highest conservation concern. By developing such an index, the aim was to provide a general indication of the degree to which catchments have been transformed from a natural environment to a human altered environment, thereby identifying catchments most in need of conservation. For the three available datasets, indices were developed using a five category point-scoring system. A score of one indicates a completely degraded environment and a score of five indicates a pristine environment. The original land cover data consisted of 49 different land cover types which were reduced to five land cover transformation scores. Available river integrity data already existed in five categories and a numerical score of one to five was applied to each category. Fish species conservation status was scored according to the IUCN red data list classifications on a similar basis. Subsequently, a weighted mean score expressed as a percentage was calculated for the three indices for each quaternary catchment. These indices indicate the degree of change/transformation from a natural system (100%) to a largely degraded system (20%). Ultimately, an ecological integrity index was calculated as a mean value of the three related but independent indices. However, the results of the developed ecological integrity index were not representative of real world conditions. This is largely attributed to the lack of complete data found in two out of the three datasets used in the study. Some of the main limitations encountered were the lack of river segment definitions within each catchment and the incomplete and un-systematic collected fish species data records. The land cover data, on the contrary, was of high definition and high standard. It is recommended that in the interim, the developed land transformation index, based on a detailed analysis of land cover, be used as an indicator index of ecological integrity of catchments

The seasonal variation of anammox is yet to be comprehensively studied, unlike denitrification, the more traditional sink for fixed nitrogen. A seasonal study of anammox, denitrification and benthic oxygen consumption using the revised isotope pairing technique is presented in Chapter 2. Experimental temperature and NO3- concentration were kept constant throughout so that the capacity of the sediment for anammox could be estimated. Similar seasonal variations in the rates of anammox, denitrification and oxygen consumption suggest that anammox is controlled by the availability of organic carbon. Furthermore the effect of tidal inundation by overlying water rich in NO3- was investigated by measuring rates of anammox, denitrification and oxygen consumption at three tidal elevations throughout the year. A significant relationship between anammox and denitrification was established at each tidal elevation, which increased in strength as length of inundation decreased. To complement this seasonal study, additional experiments were undertaken, which are described in Chapter 3, to determine how anammox, denitrification and sediment metabolism responds to variations in experimental NO3- concentration and temperature. There were significant increases in rates of anammox, denitrification and sediment metabolism with temperature until 20oC when rates of anammox began to reduce. Furthermore there was significant variation in the response of all three processes to temperature in samples collected at different dates, which suggested that reduced bioavailability of organic carbon in the winter months was limiting the response to temperature. In addition to exploring how inorganic N is cycled in estuarine sediments, the ability of estuarine sediments to oxidize urea via nitrite was examined using 15N and 13C labelled substrates. Results, which are presented in Chapter 4, indicate that urea added to anaerobic sediment slurries was rapidly hydrolysed to ammonium before being oxidized via the anammox pathway.