A field run-off experiment having five different patterns of hedgerows was carried out to explore effects and mechanisms of the hedgerows conserving soil and water in a red soil sloping farmland in a hilly region of Zhuji, Zhejiang, making use of natural rainfalls, simulated storms, rare earth element tracing technique (REE) and soil erosion resistance index system. Results show that under natural rainfall, the hedgerow of Double rows of Ophiopogon japonicas reduced runoff and soil loss by 39.4% and 65.8% respectively, ranking first among the five patterns in efficiency. The pre-rainfall soil water content could significantly affect occurrence of runoff and soil losses. Regression models were established to simulate the relationships between runoff and soil loss. Changes in soil physical properties under the different patterns were significant and bulk density and porosity were found to be the premier indicators in evaluating effects of the hedgerows controlling soil and water losses. On the basis of the seventeen indices for soil erosion resistance, a comprehensive evaluation index system was established to evaluate red soil erosion resistance as affected by hedgerows. Evaluation using the system indicate that the soil erosion resistance of hedgerows followed the order of double rows of Ophiopogon japonicas (MM) > One row of Ophiopogon japonicas plus one row of Hemerocallis citrina (MM) > double rows of Hemerocallis citrina (HH) > a single row of Ophiopogon japonicas (M) > a single row of Hemerocallis citrina (H) > plot without hedgerow (L). Position of hedgerows on the slope also affects their effect on soil and water losses because the middle and down slopes are the major sources of sediments.

In-situ monitoring of runoff under artificial rainfall was performed in a runoff experimental field located at the Xiangxi River Valley to investigate characteristics of nitrogen loss with different patterns of runoff and soil loss in a sloping farmland of typical yellow-brown earth, which is highly susceptible to soil erosion. Results show that surface runoff differed sharply from interflow. During a storm event surface runoff accounted for 68.44% of the total runoff and interflow for 31.56%. The loss of TN, DN, NO3^--N and NH₄⁺-N with runoff was 1.869, 1.524, 1.404 and 0.018kg· hm^-2, respectively. All the forms of N, except NH₄⁺-N, were lost with interflows, which contributed over 70 %. The N lost with surface runoff was mainly interflow particulate N, while that with soluble TN. The total loss of total nitrogen with runoff during the rainstorm reached 2.90kg· hm^-2 of which 14.56% was lost with the water in surface runoff, 35.51 % with the silt in surface runoff and 49.93 % with interflow. Therefore, it is critical to adopt cultivation practices that are capable of raising the soil capacity of holding water and nutrients and controlling nutrient losses with interflow in management of of non-point source pollution.

Human activities have greatly affected the nitrogen (N) cycles in the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The Xiaolangdi Reservoir on the Yellow River and the mainstream and tributaries of the River thereafter, including Qin River and Yiluo River, were selected as subjects in this study to trace potential nitrate sources of the waters with nitrogen isotope. It was found that the average nitrate content in the mainstream of the Yellow Rvier and its tributaries, Qin River and Yiluo River, was 4.77±0.95mg·L^-1, 3.45±1.71mg·L^-1 and 4.50±0.91mg·L^-1, respectively; and the average δ¹⁵N-NO₃^- in the mainstream was +3.2±4.5‰. Dissolved nitrate in upper stream of the Yellow River in the studied area came mainly from mineralized soil organic nitrogen, and in the rivers of the lower reaches from mineralized soil organic nitrogen and fertilizers applied. The average δ¹⁵N-NO₃^- was +8.3±4.6‰ in the Qin River. Its nitrate came mainly from atmospheric precipitation, mineralized soil organic nitrogen and fertilizers during the high water season, and from sewage water and mineralized soil organic nitrogen during the normal water season, and from growth of phytoplankton and cyanobacteria, and denitrification in enclosed waters formed after the river discontiunued its flow during the low water season. Druing the low water season, the average δ¹⁵N-NO₃^- was +10.9‰ and +3.4‰ in the Luo River and the Yi River respectively. In the former, sewage was the main source of nitrate, while in the latter the fertilizers.

During the period from January to October of 2010, 80 water samples were collected from 10 sampling sites scattered at the main inlets and drinking water sources of the Taihu Lake for analysis of characteristics of the Spatio-temporal variation of NH₃-N, TN, TP and COD_Mn in the waters, and evaluation of water quality thereof. Results show that with the time going on, NH₃-N concentrations in these sensitive waters remained almost unchanged, TN was relatively high in April, TP in July, and COD_Mn significantly in January and March (no sample for February). Moreover, the sensitive waters located at Northwest Taihu Lake were higher than the others in concentration of NH₃-N, TN, TP and COD_Mn. Water quality evaluation shows that NH₃-N, TN, TP and COD_Mn concentrations in some sensitive waters were higher than the National Standard for Water Environmental Quality. TN and TP, in particular,  91.7% and 82.5% of samples exceeded their respective standard. Among the sampling sites, the one at the inlet of Dapu Pier was the most seriously polluted with the arithmetical mean monomial pollution index for NH₃-N, TN, TP and COD_Mn being 2.20, 14.73, 6.85 and 1.33, respectively.

As an important concept of the resource management and environmental impact assessment , ecosystem integrity is mainly used to reflect the degree to which an ecological system maintains its structure, function and stability under external disturbance. The Minle-Yumen Section of the 2nd Double Line of Lanxin Railway was chosen for case study using the technology of remote sensing and GIS to elaborate how fragile the ecosystem along the line was and to evaluate impact of the construction on ecosystem integrity in the eco-fragile area of Northwest China. Results show that along the railway exist numerous types of ecosystems including shrubbery, desert, steppe, meadow, marsh, alpine vegetation, farmland, etc., all of which were moderate or high in ecosystem fragility. The impact of the construction on desert ecosystems was the highest and on marsh and alpine vegetation ecosystems relatively low. Within the radius of 10 km alongside the railway, the area with alienated and damaged ecosystem accounts for less than 0.5% of the total area of the same ecosystem. So it could be concluded that the general impact of the construction is relatively small on the ecosystems along the line. Lanxin Railway 2nd Double Line|ecosystem integrity|ecological fragility degree|impact assessment

The population structure of Parrotia subaequalis in Zhejiang and Anhui Province was analyzed by the method of spatial sere for time sere. By means of t-test of variance/mean value ratio, and four other aggregation intensity indexes, including I, K, C_A, I_PA, the spatial distribution pattern and dynamics of Parrotia subaequalis were studied. The results indicate that in terms of spatial distribution this species changes from aggregation to random distribution in the same process of seedlings to trees. However, aggregation distribution is the dominant in the plots. The reasons may be primarily the reproduction of sprouting, self-thinning, and habitat heterogeneity. According to the results of analysis of its population structure, survival curve, and static life table, the P. subaequalis population is generally declining type, and fluctuates, with poor stability and low ability to regenerate in the wild.

The Hulunbeier region is an area very sensitive to global climate change. It is, therefore, of great scientific significance to study spatial and temporal distribution of vegetation NPP of that region. Based on the satellite remote sensing data and meteorological data available and with the aid of a modified light utilization rate model, analysis was made of effects of meteorological factors on the distribution in Hulunbeier. Results show that the average NPP per unit area of the past 29 years was the highest in the Daxinganling forest region, being mostly over 450 g•m^-2 and the lowest in the Hulunbeier Steppe, varying for years in the range of 0～350 g•m^-2 and moderate in other areas of Hulunbeier between the forest and the steppe, varying for years in the range of >350~450 g•m^-2. As affected by the warming and drying climate, the distribution of NPP at the pixel scale varied sharply from area to area in the region. With declining precipitation and rising temperature, the NPP per unit area of the Hulunbeier Steppe displayed a descending trend, which was getting more and more significant towards the west.With rising temperature, the NPP per unit area of the northern portion of the forest area tended to increase slightly, while that of the southern portion went the other way around, and that of the farming-pastoral ecotone to the east of the Daxinganling Mountains also showed a declining trend.

Intraspecific and interspecific competition intensities of the Celtis sinensis stands from Laoshan National Forest Park and the Zijin Mountain in Nanjing, Jiangsu were quantitatively analyzed using Hegyi’s single-tree competition index model. Phylogenetic trees of the main tree species involved in the competition were constructed with the Phylomatic and PhyloCom. Meanwhile the modified M. Godron method was applied to analyze community stability of the C. sinensis stands.Results show that the intraspecific competition intensity of the C. sinensis trees decreases gradually with the trees growing and rising in diameter at breast height(DBH) class. C. sinensis compete with other trees in the forest, showing a decreasing order of Quercus acutissima > C. sinensis > Robinia pseudoacacia > Cornus walteri > Quercus variabilis in Zijin and of Broussonetia papyrifera > C. sinensis > Dalbergia hupeana > Robinia pseudoacacia > Platycarya strobilacea in Laoshan in competition intensity.  No matter  whether in Zijinshan or in Laoshan, the intraspecific competition is lower than the interspecific competition, which may be related to the biological characteristics, habitat heterogeneity and phylogeny of the dominant species of the forests. A power function relationship is found conforming to the one between competition intensity and DBH of the objective trees. When C. sinensis grows over 20 cm in DBH, its competition intensity changes little, so the model can be used to predict efficiently intraspecific and interspecific competition intensity within the forest. The analysis of community stability using the modified M. Godron method indicates that the C. sinensis stands, in both Zijin and Lanshan are still in an unstable state.

Structures and diversities of spider communities in four different types of hedgerows, such as Amorpha fruticosa, Vetiveria zizanioides, Eulaliopsis binata and Medicago sativa, were investigated using the method of direct visual observation during the winter wheat and summer maize growing seasons from April 2006 to September 2007 in the purple soil hilly areas of Sichuan Basin. Results show that in 2006, a total of 3 074 spider individuals under 48 genera, 16 families were found with Lycosidae, Salticidae and Theridiidae being the dominateding families, and in 2007 a total of 3233 spider individuals under 51 genera, 14 families were caught , with Lycosidae and Salticidae being the dominateding families. During the wheat and maize growing seasons in 2006 and 2007, spiders in different types of hedgerows followed a basically similar trend in variation of the number of individuals, which peaked after wheat or maize was harvested; the number of spider individuals was significantly greater after the harvest than before the harvest. Significant differences were found between hedgerows in number of individuals, species richness and Shannon-Wiener diversity index H’ of spiders. The hedgerows of A.fruticosa, E.binata and M.sativa were higher than that of V.zizanioides in all the three indices.  The Jaccard coefficients of the four types of hedgerows showed that the spider communities in the hedgerows of A.fruticosa, E.binata and M.sativa were quite high in similarity, but quite different from that in the hedgerow of V.zizanioides ,which suggests that vegetation structure has a significant impact on structure of the spider community. Grassy hedgerows provide a better shelter for spiders than shrubby hedgerows, and spiders in the hedgerow of tussock are higher in diversity than those in other types of grass hedgerows.

To explore ecological features of the soil fauna in the forest belt around Shanghai, a systematical investigation was carried out centered on 9 sample plots of camphor woods in the forest belt of Shanghai in November 2010. A total of 5792 soil animal individuals were collected, belonging to 26 groups of 12 classes under  6 phyla. The dominant species were Rotatoria, Turbellaria, Nematoda, Acarina and Collembola. The findings indicate that the impacts of regional environment and history of the establishment were significant on population density of the soil animals. The highest density was found in soils of the rural-urban fringe area, while the lowest one was in soils of the industrial areas. The earlier the industrial area was established, the lower the soil animal density was. In soil profiles, the animals tended to live in the surface soil layer. No specific regularity was found on similarity of animal communities between different sample plots, but regional environment showed certain influence on the similarity. And the difference in soil animal diversity was significant between different regions and between areas different in establishment history, too. In the urban area, the earlier the forest belt was established the higher its biodiversity was, while in industrial areas, it was just the opposite. In short, regional environment does have certain impact on survival of soil animal, but the establishment of the outer circle forest belt helps reduce the discrepancy of different areas and create a suitable habitat for soil animals. 

During the period from March to December 2010, four sampling surveys were carried out to study population, density and biodiversity of macro zoobenthos in the mangrove forest around the Dongzhai Harbor, and their temporal and spatial variations. It was found that the differences were very significant between seasons in population and diversity. The animals were the most diversified in winter (45 species found) and the least in summer (28 species found). The highest biomass was observed in autumn (272.78 g•m^-2) and the lowest in summer (165.93 g•m^-2). The highest density was observed in winter (679.25 m^-2) and the lowest in summer (504.95 m^-2). Two-factor ANOVA was used to analyze effects of station and season on density, biomass and evenness index of the macro zoobenthos (Shannon-Wiener, H; Margalef, D_M; Simpson, E). It was found that the temporal variations of the density, biodiversity and richness indices were significant (P＜0.05) and the spatial variations of the biomass and evenness indices were significant (P＜0.05). The analysis also indicates that temperature, salinity and , substrate and species of mangrove are the leading factors affecting biodiversity of the macro zoobenthos. Restoration of the mangrove forest around the Dongzhai Harbor will help increase biomass and species diversity of the macro zoobenthos therein.

Based on the long-term field experiment in the black soil region of Northeast China, effects of fertilization, designed to have CK (no fertilizer), Treatment NP (chemical fertilizer) and Treatment NPM (chemical fertilizer plus pig manure), on water consumption of maize and soil water supply capacity were analyzed, using the data in 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2007. Results show that the peak of water consumption by maize was observed during the jointing - tasseling stage and tasseling-maturity, reaching 24.41% and 47.07% in water consumption module, respectively, and the average water consumption intensity of the crop throughout the whole growth period was 3.64 mm•d^-1. The characteristics were significantly affected by amount and distribution of rainfall. Higher water consumption and higher water consumption efficiency were found in Treatments NP and NPM in droughty years and some droughty periods during the maize growing season. In terms of soil water supply, the three treatments followed a decreasing order of NPM > NP > CK. So, application of pig manure in combination of chemical fertilizer is an effective practice to increase the soil water utilization efficiency of maize and mitigate seasonal drought stress.

A pot experiment was conducted to explore effects of bentonite on physiological and biochemical characteristics, such as chlorophyll content, shoot biomass, SOD and POD activities, and MDA content of rice seedlings growing in Cd contaminated soil. Results show that the amendment of bentonite increased the content of chlorophyll in leaves of the rice seedlings and promoted growth and development of the seedlings.The dry biomass of rice shoots increased with rising bentonite application rate. In the soil contaminated only with Cd, SOD activity remained almost unchanged in leaves of the rice seedlings, but did significantly in roots of the plants, SOD lowered with rising Cd concentration in the soil (P < 0.05), and application of bentonite increased SOD activity in the roots as a whole. However, POD activities in leaves and roots of the plants rose sharply first and then declined with the increase in Cd concentration in the soil treated only with Cd. Application of bentonite reduced POD activity in leaves of the plants. However, the application of 5~50 g•kg^-1 bentonite significantly increased POD activity in roots of the rice seedlings, by 13.2%-22.4%, 4.9%-9.5%, 44.8%-80.6%, and 6.9%-49.6%, respectively, over that in the control. MDA contents in leaves and roots of the plants rose with rising Cd concentration and were 139.0% and 158.1% higher, respectively than that in control. Application of bentonite significantly lowered MDA contents in the rice, and weakened the effect of membrane lipid peroxidation. To sum up, application of bentonite can effectively alleviate Cd toxicity to rice seedlings, thus it can be used as an approach to the remediation of Cd contaminated soils.

Effects of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on physiological and biochemistrical characteristics of zebrafish were studied, using a semi-static test system. The zebrafish were kept in 0, 0.1, 1 and 10 mg•L^-1 SWCNTs-1 suspensions, separately for exposion up to 28 days, and then contents of glutathione (GSH) and  maleic dialdehyde (MDA), and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and Na⁺-K⁺-ATPase in brain, gill and liver were measured. Furthermore, impacts of purity of SWCNTs and dispersant (sodium dodecyl sulfate, or SDS) on biological toxicity of SWCNTs were also investigated.  Results show that neither the dispersion nor the purity of SWCNTs was the main factor influencing its toxicity in the experiment, and no notable effect of SWCNTs was found on the content of GSH and the activity of SOD, but SWCNTs was found to have caused obvious increase in Na⁺-K⁺-ATPase activity and dose-dependent decline of MDA content in liver, gill and brain. Obviously, SWCNTs have no other obvious toxicity than stimulating zebrafish to intensify elimination of oxygen free radicals.

Zebrafish was chosen as a subject in tests on shallow groundwaters (GW1, GW2 and GW3) sampled from 3 different sites, a hazardous chemical storage, chlorinated paraffin workshop and a place outside the chemical plant, for acute toxicity to zebrafish and toxicity affecting the development of zebrafish embryos. Results show that to adult zebrafish φ(72h，LC₅₀) of GW1 was 79.12%, and of GW2 and GW3 both greater than 100%. Dfferent degrees of toxic effects of the three shallow groundwaters on development of zebrafish embryos were recorded. The biotoxicity indices, like egg coagulation rate in 24h, non-spontaneous movement within 20s and hatching rate in 72h, were found to be closely related to dosage of the pollutant. The waters also had certain teratogenic effects on zebrafish, which would display pericardial cyst, spinal curvature, tail curvature or lack of melanin. The waters followed an order of GW 1 > GW 2 > GW 3 in biotoxicity. It is suggested that the toxicity test on zebrafish embryos is higher in sensitivity than the acute toxicity test. Moreover, the former is simple and rapid, and hence can be used in rapid screening of contaminated groundwater, which provides scientific basis for further hazard identification and risk assessment.

Diatomite was used as raw material and prepared into a diatomite-based composite phosphorus removal agent by combining it with some combining steel slag. The agent was characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron micrograph (SEM). Besides, effects of dosage of the agent used, duration of the adsorption, pH value and temperature on performance of the agent were investigated by batch sorption experiments. Results show that combination with steel slag has brought about some changes in some parssads and in crystalline structure, creating new crystal phases. Static P-remvoving experiments demonstrate that the agent performed the best when the agent was applied at a rate of 2g·L^-1, into the wastewater, 5 in pH and 25 ℃ in temperature, for 1 h incubation. Evaluation of the experimental data in terms of adsorption kinetics reveals that the P adsorption kinetic behavior of the agent well fitted the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Meanwhile, isothermal equations, such as Freundlich, Langmuir and Redlich-Peterson isotherms can be used to well describe the adsorption performance of the agent. The theoretical P saturation adsorption capacity of the agent is 1 428 mg•kg^-1, which indicates that the diatomite-based composite phosphorus removal agent can be used as a potentially efficient and environmental friendly absorbent material.

Rice straw was pyrolyzed into biochar at four different temperatures (200, 400, 600, and 800℃). Mineral structure, surface properties and elemental composition of the biochars were analyzed with the aid of XRD, FTIR and SEM/EDS, and characteristics of the biochars adsorbing cyromazine in wastewater were studied, so as to provide some references for treatment of cyromazine-containing wastewater and utilization of crop straws as resource. Results show that the biochars contain mineral crystals, like quartz, calcite and potassium chloride, and some major elements, like C, O and Si; They were porous in structure and rich in oxygen-containing functional group. Biochars prepared at 600℃ or more in pyrolyzation were higher in specific surface area and their adsorption of cyromazine significantly higher, too. Fitting with Langmuir equation showed that the maximum cyromazine adsorption capacity of the biochar prepared at 200, 400, 600 and 800℃ of pyrolyzation temperature  was 4200 and 6365, 144865 and 167084 mg•kg^-1, respectively, of which the last two were quite close to that of the commodity activated carbon (177305 mg•kg^-1), and 16.8 and 20.1 times as higher asthan that of the equivalent amount of rice straw. The kinetic curve of biochar adsorbing cyromazine fitted well the first order kinetics equation. In solution with the initial concentration of cyromazine being 100 and 200 mg•L^-1, it took the biochars produced at 600 and 800℃ about 5 and 8 hours, respectively, to reach equilibrium in cyromazine adsorption. In solutions, 500 mg•L^-1 in initial concentration of cyromazine, 5 - 10 in pH and 1 - 100mmol•L^-1 NaNO₃ in supportive electrolyte, no significant effects of pH value and ion strength were observed on the adsorption of cyromazine by the biochar produced at 600 and 800℃.

To explore process of BDE-15 biodegradation in water body and its influencing factors, an indoor experiment was carried out using Bacillus sp. to biodegrade BDE-15 in water to study effects of extragenous carbon and initial BDE-15 concentration on the bio-degradation capacity of the bacteria. Results show that Bacillus could not utilize BDE-15 as the sole carbon source for growth. If glucose was added, Bacillus could grow rapidly and improved its ability to degradate BDE-15 in water and in 4 days, it could degrade 28% of the BDE-15 in the solution and even 55% when an additional dose of glucose was added. The high initial BDE-15 concentration (50 mg•L^-1) could inhibit the growth of Bacillus and also its ability to biodegradate BDE-15.

With the aid of GC-ECD (gas chromatography with electron capture detection), a micro matrix solid phase dispersion (MSPD) was used with LC-C18 as dispersant, Alumina-N as purificant and acetonitrile as eluting solvent to analyze residues of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the meat of Carassius auratus. Results show that when 0.1g sample, 0.4g LC-C18 and 0.1g Alumina-N were used, the addition of 2.5mL acetonitrile created a better elution effect with recovery rate varying in the range of 73.0%-116.8% for all the three sample spiking levels (0.05, 0.25 and 0.50 mg?kg^-1) and relative standard deviation in the range of 1.6%-13.6%. The detection limits for all the fractions of organochlorine stayed below 3.5 μg?kg^-1.

Linear features of the waterbodies of waterways or rivers make it hard to bypass construction projects associated with waterways in nature reserves. Actually, all the construction projects, such as inland transport waterways, crossing bridges, and flood control installations in related regions, are confronted more or less with some legal barriers. Conservation and rational exploitation of the water bodies of rivers or waterways are paradoxes hard to be taken care of simultaneously. From the angle of promoting harmonized development of conservation of aquatic organism diversity, eco-social construction and people’s livelihood on the banks of these rivers, analysis was done of such problemsissues as failure of the “Regulations for Nature Reserves in China" concerning environmental permission for construction projects alongside the rivers or waterways in the reserves to take into account specificities of these waterbodies; inapplicability of the rules for functional zoning of nature reserves to those of the waterway type; and lack of rules concerning nature reserves in the river or waterway related laws. On such a basis, some countermeasures are proposed, e.g. permissions should be granted conditionally to some capital construction and liveliness projects in the buffer zones and core zones of nature reserves; the environmental permission system should be further consummated; and environmental management of the construction projects within river or waterway type nature reserves should be intensified, etc..

Veterinary medicine and feed additives are now extensively used in animal husbandry and aquaculture,which has become an important factor polluting the eco-environment adn affecting human health.Developed countries have already begun to adopt ecological riks assessment technologies in their management of veterinary drugs,whereas China is just in its starting point.Olaquindox is one of the most commonly used drugs in China.In this study,EU's classic methods and models for ecological risk assessment of veterinary drugs were used to conduct ecological risk assessment of olaquindox.Results show that the predicted environmenttal concentration of olaquindox was 0.313-2.68 mg·kg^-1,0.928-10.2 mg·kg^-1 and 0.281-3.10 mg·kg^-1,in soil,surface water and ground water,respectively,its predicted non-effective concentration was >200 mg·kg^-1,0.5 mg·kg^-1 and 0.5 mg·kg^-1 and 0.5 mg·kg^-1,respectively and its predicited ecological risk <1.34×10^-2,1.856-20.4 and 0.562-6.20,respectively.It is clear that attention should be paid to lowering its aquatic ecological risk in the risk management of olaquindox.It is,therefore,concluded that the ecological risk assessment technology can be used to provide environmental administration of veterinary medicines with effective technical support.

Effects of film mulchings different in mode on activities of soil hydrolase and oxidoredutase were studied. Results show that overall film mulching significantly increased their activities of soil hydrolase and oxidoredutase. The activity of soil hydrolase basically decreased with the increasing of soil depth, but that of soil oxidoreductase displayed a reverse trend. Sucrase was positively related to urease and alkaline phosphatase in activity (α=0.05), while alkaline phosphatase was negatively related to nitrate reductase in activity (α=0.01).

Comparisons were made between tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC) and chlortetracycline (CTC) in photodegradation and photocatalytic degradation in solutions different in pH. Results show that under UV light, they followed the order of OTC > CTC > TC in photodegradation rate. However, under UV- TiO₂ photocatalysis, they demonstrated little difference in solutions with pH in the range of 3.0-7.0 . Increasing solution pH facilitated both the photodegradation and photocatalysis degradation of TCs, and NH₄+ ions were generated during these processes.