Plants of the order Brassicaceae have evolved a chemical defence against herbivory: the glucosinolate-myrosinase system. Mechanical damage to plant tissues, such as grazing, initiates the production of phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), a compound toxic to invertebrates. Mechanical damage caused during biofumigation and the harvesting and washing of watercress presents routes for PEITC release into waterbodies, such as the chalk stream spawning sites of brown trout (Salmo trutta). This laboratory study exposed developing S. trutta embryos to PEITC at concentrations of 0.01, 0.1 and 1 μg/L. S. trutta exposed to 1 μg/L PEITC during embryonic development resulted in 100% mortality after four dose days. Exposure to 0.1 μg/L PEITC resulted in an approximate fourfold increase in mortality relative to the controls, while exposure to 0.01 μg/L PEITC had a negligible effect on embryo mortality. Embryos exposed to 0.1 μg/L PEITC showed a significant delay in hatching and produced alevins with significantly shorter total lengths, lighter body weights and an approximate threefold increase in spinal deformities relative to those exposed to the controls and 0.01 μg/L PEITC. The results of a motor activity assay demonstrate that alevins exposed to PEITC showed a significant decrease in swimming activity compared with control animals during periods of illumination. The increased mortality, teratogenic effects and impaired behaviour in S. trutta following embryonic exposure to relatively low concentrations of PEITC highlight a need to accurately quantify and monitor environmental levels of PEITC.

The water volume for sediment transport affects the distribution of sediments in rivers and offers important guidance for river dredging, management and remediation. In this paper, with daily water and sediment data of major hydrological stations of main stream of Liaohe River from 1988 to 2010, we calculated the average water volume and unit water volume for sediment transport of the year with the methods of sediment discharge, sediment concentration and erosion and silting ratio correction that are based on net water volume method. We analyzed the relations between change process of water volume for sediment transport and its impact factors to identify the critical water volume for sediment transport for non-scouring and non-silting situation. The results showed that (1) according to the calculation with the hydrological data from the major hydrological stations in Tongjiangkou, Tieling, Mahushan, Ping’anpu and Liujianfang, the average water volume and the unit water volume for sediment transport during the flood season of the year were 13.88×108m3 and 1136.62m3/t respectively; (2) According to the theoretical calculation, the water demand model for hydraulic sediment dredging in the major reaches of the main stream of Liaohe River was determined and there was linear function relationship between the sediment discharge and the water demand. When the channel kept the sediment from silting, the water demand at Tieling was ≥18.73×108m3, ≥5.49×108m3 at Mahushan, ≥2.90×108m3 at Ping’anpu and ≥10.97×108m3 at Liaozhong. In a word, net water volume method can accurately calculate the amount of sediment transport in sediment-laden rivers with a prospect of broad application.

The incineration technology of oily sludge-based briquette makes great contributions to oily sludge treatment. In order to resolve these problems, air pollutants (SO2 and organic gas) emission and low incinerating rate during the briquette incineration, the effects of additives (CaCO3, CaO; K2CO3, Na2CO3, NaCl; KMnO4, KNO3, NaNO3; Fe2O3, KClO3) on the generating gas and incinerating rate during incineration were studied. The results show that CaCO3 is more effective than CaO for fixing sulphur into residue, and K2CO3 improved the sulphation efficiency of calcium-based additives, which is more useful than NaCl and Na2CO3 did. As for the incinerating rate of briquette, KMnO4 is more effective than KNO3 and NaNO3. The maximum of incinerating rate of briquette is improved from 0.38 to 0.6 g/ min and Fe2O3 and KClO3 can apparently reduce the release of organic gas during the incineration of briquette. But KClO3 can greatly reduce the release of sulphur. When the adding amount of CaCO3, K2CO3, KMnO4 and KClO3 is 16‰, 12‰, 18‰, 6‰ respectively in the process of briquette preparation, the sulphation efficiency reached the maximum of 95.3%, and there is still an extremely small amount of organic gas in flue gas. CaCO3, K2CO3, KMnO4 and KClO3 used in emission control of air pollutants and full combustion of briquette during incineration of oily sludge based-briquette, demonstrates high efficiency and low emission compared to other additives tested in this study.

Microplastic pollution is widely reported in different marine environments from shorelines to seabed of deep seas which pose an emerging threat to entire marine ecosystems. As the world’s secondlargest microplastics polluter, an understanding of the distribution of this type of pollution is important for the measurement of the magnitude of environmental risk. In the present study, the abundance and distribution of microplastics in coastal sediments of Bama Resort, Baluran National Park were measured at depths of 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, and 20-30 cm. Microplastics characterization was performed using a modified flotation method while a sieve analysis was used to assess the particle size of the sediments. Results showed that there were 484 particles with a total average abundance of 116.41 ± 80.78 particles kg-1 DW. Fibres shared 37.8% of the total microplastics found with overall average of 43.71 ± 36.52 particles kg-1 DW. Overall, Tukey’s multiple comparisons test showed significant differences (P< 0.01) in vertical distribution of microplastics in which 55.46% of particles were found at the depths of 0-10 cm, whereas at the depths of 20-30 cm, the proportion was only 15.95%. There were two types of sediments, sandy gravel and gravelly sand in which the former type of sediments holds higher microplastic particles due to its grain dominance in upper sediments. These results imply that microplastics pollute coastal sediments of Bama Resorts, BNP, and their deposition increase over time as greater microplastics frequencies were observed in upper and more recent sediment.

Plankton diversity acts as an ecological indicator of aquatic ecosystems due to their rapid response to environmental changes. Plankton samples were collected monthly for a period of 24 months. A total of 35 genera of phytoplankton belonging to three classes, Bacillariophyceae (21 genera), Chlorophyceae (9 genera) and Cyanophyceae (5 genera) were found. The abundance of phytoplankton was in the order, Bacillariophyceae (83%) followed by Chlorophyceae (9%) and Cyanophyceae (8%). Maximum phytoplankton density in winter season was attributed to the low water temperature, gentle water velocity, high transparency, availability of sufficient nutrients and most stable substratum. Eight genera of zooplankton belonging to three major groups, Protozoa (2 genera), Rotifera (5 genera) and Copepoda (1 genus) was recorded. Shannon-Wiener diversity index of phytoplankton and zooplankton was computed maximum to be 2.61 and 1.56 respectively in the winter season. PCA indicates Cymbella, Navicula, Synedra, Cocconeis, Achnanthidium, Amphora, Nitzschia, Tabellaria, Fragilaria, Ulothrix, Spirogyra and Phormidium to be most dominant genera in the Mandakini river. Total alkalinity, water temperature, transparency, velocity, dissolved oxygen, free carbon dioxide, turbidity, phosphate and nitrate were found to be the most important factors affecting plankton diversity in the Mandakini river.

Petroleum fuels have served mankind successfully for more than a century mainly for mobility in the form of vehicles, power generation and industrial activities. As crude oil is a fossil fuel, we cannot rely upon it forever. Transportation is the backbone for the mobility for which fuel is the basic necessity. As the petroleum products are at the verge of their extinction, finding alternative fuels is the need of the time. Alternative fuels are obtained from seeds of many edible and non-edible oil plants. Edible oils due to their consumption for cooking purposes, may not be advisable to use for commercial activity, however, non-edible oils can be attempted as a source to serve the purpose as engine fuels. Nonedible oils can be blended with the petroleum products and can be used mainly in the diesel engine with slight or no modifications. The performance studies are being carried out by various researchers all over the world using many such refined oils as engine fuels. This review paper attempts to collate the published research literature. The focus in this review paper is on analysis of availability, engine performance and pollution characteristics when oils such as Jatropha curcas, Calophyllum inophyllum, Mahua and Pongamia pinnata are used.

A composite adsorbent was prepared by montmorillonite and biochar from peanut shell. The adsorption experiment of the Cu2+ ions from aqueous solution by the montmorillonite-biochar composite was carried out in detail. The effects of initial concentration of Cu2+ ions in aqueous solution and contact time on adsorption efficiency were studied. FTIR spectroscopy, SEM and TEM analyses, standard N2 adsorption-desorption techniques, EDS and XPS were used to evaluate the physico-chemical, textural and crystalline properties of the montmorillonite-biochar composite. Results showed that the montmorillonite-biochar composite was mesoporous material. The surface of montmorillonite-biochar composite was rough with irregular layer structure. According to the experimental data, pseudo first order kinetics model and pseudo second order kinetics model were applied. The adsorption process fits well with the pseudo second order kinetics model. The predominant process is chemisorption, which involves a sharing of electrons between the adsorbate and the surface of the adsorbent. Adsorption data were correlated well by Freundlich isotherm models and adsorption process was chemical. It is concluded that the montmorillonite-biochar composite can be used as an effective adsorbent for the removal of Cu2+ ions from aqueous solutions.

Continuous wavelet analysis (CWA) has been applied to leaf-scale spectral data for quantifying leaf chlorophyll content, but its application to canopy-scale spectral data for estimating the canopy chlorophyll density (CCD) of winter wheat at different growth stages requires further analysis. This study aims to estimate CCD by applying CWA to the canopy spectra of 185 samples from Guanzhong Plain, China. The five most informative wavelet features related to CCD were identified using the CWA method. Meanwhile, 10 commonly used spectral indices were selected to compare with the CWA method. Two partial least square regression (PLSR) models based on wavelet features and spectral indices were developed and compared. Results showed that the PLSR model using wavelet features (R2 = 0.64, RMSE = 0.43 g/m2) was better than that using spectral indices (R2 = 0.57, RMSE = 0.48 g/m2) and wavelet features were less sensitive to the growth stage variation than spectral indices. This result suggested that the CWA approach can derive robust wavelet features and was more effective than spectral indices for predicting CCD from canopy-scale spectral data for an agricultural ecosystem.

The objective of this work is to experimentally study the consequence of blending lower order alcohol (methanol and ethanol) with jatropha oil methyl ester (JOME) in a single cylinder, four stroke and watercooled CI engine. 70% JOME blended with 30% methanol (J70M30) and 70% JOME blended with 30% ethanol (J70E30) are the two blends prepared to operate the engine. Experiments were conducted from 0 to 100% load at a fixed engine speed of 1500 rpm and the results were compared with base fuels. Due to the inferior physical properties of JOME, brake thermal efficiency (BTE) decreases compared to diesel at maximum load. Also, NO emissions increased by 4% and smoke opacity decreases by 10% while operating the engine with JOME compared to diesel. Simultaneous reduction of NO and smoke is achieved by blending lower order alcohol with JOME and a slight improvement in BTE is observed.

Based on the systematic collection of the shallow groundwater samples in the urban area of Suzhou, Anhui province, China, the concentrations of zinc have been analysed by statistical and spatial methods. The results show that the zinc concentrations in the groundwater samples are low, and all the samples can meet the national groundwater quality standard of China with Class I and II, which means that the groundwater can be used for drinking purpose. However, the zinc concentration has high coefficient of variation and low p-values of normal distribution, implying that it has been affected by anthropogenic activities, which was also demonstrated by the consistency of the distribution of the samples with high zinc concentrations and the areas with high density of human and transportation, as well as the high-high cluster of the spatial autocorrelation analysis of zinc. Based on the statistical analysis, the environmental background has been calculated to be 0-62.6 μg/L, whereas the environmental background has been calculated to be 0-69.8 μg/L with spatial analysis. They are different because of the different basis of the two methods, the former based on the hypothesis of normal distribution of the background values, whereas the latter do not need such a hypothesis.