Nitrogen removal capacity of wetlands: sediment versus epiphytic biofilms.

Wetlands are important sinks for nutrients and constructed wetlands are current practice for stormwater treatment. For nitrogen, the main removal process is denitrification (microbial reduction of nitrate to nitrogen gas). The bacteria responsible for this process are mostly found in the sediments and in epiphytic biofilms growing on wetland macrophytes.

Small-scale temporal variation and the effect of urbanisation on extracellular enzyme activity in streams.

The activity of six extracellular enzymes involved in the degradation of dissolved organic carbon compounds was measured in two highly urbanised and two minimally impacted streams east of Melbourne, Australia, using 4-methylumbelliferyl-substrates. Small-scale temporal variation in enzyme activity was determined by repeatedly sampling the same point in the water column, while the effect of flow was determined by sampling in regions of higher and lower flow in both stream types. Replicate samples showed that enzyme activity was not significantly different over small (minutes) time scales.

Assessing long-term pH change in an Australian river catchment using monitoring and palaeolimnological data.

Reviews of stream monitoring data suggest that there has been significant acidification (>1.0 pH unit at some sites) of Victorian streamwaters over the past 3 decades. To assess whether these declines are within the range of natural variability, we developed a diatom model for inferring past pH and applied it to a ca.

Nutrient budget for Saguling Reservoir, West Java, Indonesia.

A preliminary nutrient budget for Saguling Reservoir is reported as a first attempt to quantify the behaviour of nutrients entering this reservoir. This work is part of a larger Indonesia-Australia collaborative research and training project, involving Padjadjaran University and Monash University, established to study nutrient dynamics in Saguling Reservoir. Saguling Reservoir, the first of a chain of three large reservoirs (Saguling, Cirata and Jatilahur), built on the Citarum River in central Java, was completed in 1985.

Luxury uptake of phosphorus by sediment bacteria.

This note reports the results of experiments aimed at confirming the luxury uptake of phosphorus (P) by sediment bacteria as polyphosphate (Poly-P). Aerobic suspensions of sediments from two different sites were spiked with 1 mg P/L as orthophosphate and augmented with acetate (a fermentation product) or glucose. The orthophosphate was rapidly taken up over a period of a few hours.

Application of the Australian river bioassessment system (AUSRIVAS) in the Brantas River, East Java, Indonesia.

Assessment of river 'health' using biological methods, particularly those based on macro-invertebrates, is now commonplace in most developed countries. However, this is not the case in most developing countries, where physical and chemical methods are used to assess water quality, with very little use of biological assessment methods. This paper reports on a project that aimed to assess the possible introduction of biological assessment of river condition using the Australian River Assessment System (AUSRIVAS) into Indonesia.

Hydrolysis of triphosphate from detergents in a rural waste water system.

The concentrations of detergent phosphates in raw sewage entering a small, predominantly domestic waste water treatment facility were determined using an ion chromatographic-flow injection analysis technique. Hourly loads of detergent phosphates were measured between 0600 and 2300 hrs (the major flow period in the plant) on days of both low and high phosphorus loads. The calculated loads of detergent phosphorus entering the plant on low and high load days were 260 g P/day and 350 g P/day, respectively.

Fractionation and composition of colloidal and suspended particulate materials in rivers.

The association of pollutants (nutrients, heavy metals and organic compounds) with colloidal and suspended particle matter (SPM) plays a dominant role in determining their transport, fate, biogeochemistry, bioavailability and toxicity in natural waters. A scheme for the fractionation and composition of colloidal and SPM from river waters has been tested. All four separation methods, i.

Speciation of dissolved phosphorus in environmental samples by gel filtration and flow-injection analysis.

A study of the factors affecting separation and detection of dissolved organic and inorganic phosphorus species found in waters sediments is reported. The system involved the use of gel filtration and flow injection analysis (FIA). Orthophosphate and myo-inositol hexakisphosphate, as model solutes representative of low molecular weight P (LMWP) and high molecular weight P (HMWP), were separated on a Sephadex G25 column incorporated into a flow-injection manifold which utilized photo-oxidation and spectrophotometry for detection of dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) and dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP).

Characterization of immobilized Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase reactors in flow injection analysis.

The characterization of immobilized Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase reactors used in flow injection analysis is reported for factors such as optimum pH, activity, ionic strength, product inhibition, and substrate specificity. The kinetics of the immobilized enzyme was studied, and mathematical descriptions were developed for the use of an immobilized enzyme packed-bed reactor to evaluate the kinetic parameters and the number of active sites on the immobilized enzyme. Suppression of phosphatase activity by orthophosphate was found to be significantly reduced, and the Michaelis-Menten constant increased when the enzyme was immobilized and packed in a reactor.