Tectonic hydrogen and tectonic oxygen production through deforming piezoelectric minerals in the presence of water

ABSTRACT A high concentration of hydrogen gas occurs in fracture zones of active faults that are associated with historical earthquakes. To explain the described phenomenon, we propose the piezoelectrochemical (PZEC) effect as a mechanism for the direct conversion of mechanical energy to chemical energy. When applied to natural piezoelectric crystals including quartz and serpentine, hydrogen and oxygen are generated via direct water decomposition. Laboratory experiments show H2 gas is generated from strained piezoelectric material due to the extremely low solubility of H2, suggesting that the deformed or strained mineral surfaces can catalyze water decomposition. If the strain-induced H2 production is significant, hydrogen measurements at monitoring sites can offer information on deformation of rocks operating at depth prior to earthquakes. Oxygen can be measured in water due to its high solubility compared to hydrogen. Our experimental results demonstrate that dissolved oxygen generated from the PZEC effect can oxidize dissolved organic dye and ferrous iron in an aqueous Fe(II)–silicate metal complex. The hydrogen and oxygen formed through stoichiometric decomposition of water in the presence of strained or deformed minerals in fault zones (including subduction zones and transform faults) may be referred to as tectonic hydrogen and tectonic oxygen. Tectonic hydrogen could be a potential energy source for deep subsurface and glacier-bedrock interface microbial communities that rely on molecular hydrogen for metabolism. Tectonic oxygen may have been an important oxidizing agent when dissolved in water during times in early Earth history when atmospheric oxygen levels were extremely low. Reported “whiffs” of dissolved oxygen before the Great Oxidation Event might have been related to tectonic activity.

Hydrodynamic and Biochemical Impacts on the Development of Hypoxia in the Louisiana–Texas Shelf Part I: Numerical Modeling and Hypoxia Mechanisms

A three-dimensional coupled hydrodynamic–biogeochemical model with N, P, Si cycles and multiple phytoplankton and zooplankton functional groups was developed and applied to the Gulf of Mexico to study bottom dissolved oxygen dynamics. A 15-year hindcast was achieved covering the period of 2006–2020. Extensive model validation against in situ data demonstrates that the model is capable of reproducing vertical distributions of dissolved oxygen (DO), frequency distributions of hypoxia thickness, spatial distributions of bottom DO concentration and interannual variations of hypoxic area. The impacts of river plume and along-shore currents on bottom DO dynamics were examined based on multiyear bottom DO climatology, the corresponding long-term trends, and interannual variability. Model results suggest that mechanisms of bottom hypoxia developments are different between the west and east Louisiana–Texas Shelf waters. The mid-Atchafalaya nearshore (10–20 m) region firstly suffers from hypoxia in May, followed by the west-Mississippi nearshore region in June. Hypoxic waters expand in the following months and eventually merge in August. Sediment oxygen consumption (SOC) and water stratification (measured by potential energy anomaly, PEA) are two main factors modulating the variability of bottom DO concentration. Generalized Boosted Regression Models provide analysis of the relative importance of PEA and SOC. The analysis indicates that SOC is the main regulator in nearshore regions, and water stratification outcompetes the sedimentary biochemical processes in the offshore (20–50 m) regions. A strong quadratic relationship was found between hypoxic volume and hypoxic area, which suggests that the volume mostly results from the low DO in bottom water and can be potentially estimated based on the hypoxic area.

Changes in Oxygen Availability during Glucose-Limited Chemostat Cultivations of Penicillium chrysogenum Lead to Rapid Metabolite, Flux and Productivity Responses

Bioreactor scale-up from the laboratory scale to the industrial scale has always been a pivotal step in bioprocess development. However, the transition of a bioeconomy from innovation to commercialization is often hampered by performance loss in titer, rate and yield. These are often ascribed to temporal variations of substrate and dissolved oxygen (for instance) in the environment, experienced by microorganisms at the industrial scale. Oscillations in dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration are not uncommon. Furthermore, these fluctuations can be exacerbated with poor mixing and mass transfer limitations, especially in fermentations with filamentous fungus as the microbial cell factory. In this work, the response of glucose-limited chemostat cultures of an industrial Penicillium chrysogenum strain to different dissolved oxygen levels was assessed under both DO shift-down (60% → 20%, 10% and 5%) and DO ramp-down (60% → 0% in 24 h) conditions. Collectively, the results revealed that the penicillin productivity decreased as the DO level dropped down below 20%, while the byproducts, e.g., 6-oxopiperidine-2-carboxylic acid (OPC) and 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6APA), accumulated. Following DO ramp-down, penicillin productivity under DO shift-up experiments returned to its maximum value in 60 h when the DO was reset to 60%. The result showed that a higher cytosolic redox status, indicated by NADH/NAD+, was observed in the presence of insufficient oxygen supply. Consistent with this, flux balance analysis indicated that the flux through the glyoxylate shunt was increased by a factor of 50 at a DO value of 5% compared to the reference control, favoring the maintenance of redox status. Interestingly, it was observed that, in comparison with the reference control, the penicillin productivity was reduced by 25% at a DO value of 5% under steady state conditions. Only a 14% reduction in penicillin productivity was observed as the DO level was ramped down to 0. Furthermore, intracellular levels of amino acids were less sensitive to DO levels at DO shift-down relative to DO ramp-down conditions; this difference could be caused by different timescales between turnover rates of amino acid pools (tens of seconds to minutes) and DO switches (hours to days at steady state and minutes to hours at ramp-down). In summary, this study showed that changes in oxygen availability can lead to rapid metabolite, flux and productivity responses, and dynamic DO perturbations could provide insight into understanding of metabolic responses in large-scale bioreactors.

Ecological Impacts of the African Catfish Clarias Gariepinus at Environmental Protection Area in Southeastern Brazil

The African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) is considered one of the most important species of catfish for aquaculture. It has a great capacity to withstand several stress factors, such as harsh abiotic conditions, in addition to wide feeding flexibility. However, the species was detected in the Guapimirim Environmental Protection Area in southeastern Brazil, threatening native fish diversity and ecosystem functioning of this ecosystem. In 2018, during the dry and wet seasons, samples of the fish community were collected at thirty-two sites of the Guapi-Macacu River, in addition to abiotic variables (salinity, pH, temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, and transparency) to diagnose which factors influence the distribution of the alien species along the river. Multivariate analyses indicated that African catfish dominate the region in the buffer zone to the Environmental protection area, benefiting from higher levels of dissolved oxygen and temperature. However, C. gariepinus does not dominate yet the most protected area of Guapimirim, where the highest percentage of native fish species inhabit. Climate change associated with changes in abiotic factors might significantly contribute to the dominance of the invasive alien species in this protected area, which might colonize the entire river.

Assessment of correlation amongst physico-chemical, topographical, geological, lithological and soil type parameters for measuring water quality of Rawal watershed using remote sensing

The quality of water is traditionally assessed by the collection of physico-chemical parameters, i.e., pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen of the water bodies. However, the variations in environmental factors may have an impact on the quality of water, as changes in these attributes may affect the water bodies. These factors include the topographical, geological, lithological and soil type parameters of the watershed. In this study, the relationship amongst the physico-chemical, topographical, geological, lithological and soil type parameters of Rawal watershed was evaluated. The parameters included in the present study could be classified as follows: (a) water quality parameters (b) topographical parameters, (c) geological parameters, (d) lithological parameters, and (e) soil type parameters. Water quality parameters consisted of dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity and temperature. The topographical parameters include the slope and aspect of the watershed while the lithological, geological and soil type parameters include the lithology, geology and soil type of the watershed. Pearson's correlation was used to determine the relationship amongst these different parameters. The results have revealed that the correlations of the topographical, lithological, geological parameters with the water quality parameters in the Rawal watershed for the monsoon seasons of June to August mostly have the same trend. Throughout the four year time period, turbidity and temperature parameters had positive correlations with soil type (ranging 0.03–0.24), however had weak correlation with geological and lithological parameters. Dissolved oxygen did not show any relationship with topographical and lithological parameters. The results for pH show that it has weak to fair positive correlations with topographical parameters. However, this analysis is based on the Landsat 8 images extracted for the monsoon seasons of the years of 2017–2020, and to examine a more prominent impact of geographical or environmental factors on the physico-chemical features, a large dataset should be considered.

Water Quality and Anthropogenic Pressures in a Changing Environment: The Arges River Basin, Romania

The objective of this work was to present several benchmarks regarding the water quality at hydrological basin level under increasing anthropogenic pressures. The first part briefly describes the sources of water pollution, the hydromorphological pressures, and the main water quality parameters widely used for the assessment. The second part presents as an example the dynamics of several water quality parameters recorded between 2007 and 2014 downstream of Argeș River, Romania, near the confluence with the Danube River. Argeș River supplies water for several important Romanian cities including Bucharest, and from here comes the rationale of the work, which envisages characterizing water quality status to substantiate proper water management. The following parameters were statistically analyzed: water temperature, suspended solids, pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, ammonium, nitrates, nitrites, and dissolved heavy metals. The factor analysis results showed that the first factor contains temperature and dissolved oxygen, the second has the heavy metals, the third groups have the ammonium and pH, the fourth contains the TSS and nitrites, while the fifth is formed by BOD5 and nitrates. Water quality plays a significant role in promoting socioeconomic development and maintaining viable ecosystems. The protection of water quality requires improved monitoring and reliable watershed management plans.