Ecosystems offer material and environmental support for human habitation and development in those areas of the earth where people choose to live. However, urbanization is an inexorable trend of human social development and threatens the health of those ecosystems inhabited by humans. This study calculates the values of NPP (net primary productivity), carbon sequestration, water interception, soil conservation, and agricultural production in the Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone. At the same time, we combined DMSP/OLS (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Line Scanner) night lights remote sensing data and statistical data to analyze the level of urbanization. Quantitative analysis was performed on the interactions between the ecosystem service functions and urbanization based on the calculations of their coupled coordination degrees. The results were the following: (1) The values of NPP, carbon sequestration, and agricultural production showed a trend of increase. However, water interception decreased before increasing, while soil conservation showed the reverse trend; (2) Urbanization levels in the Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone for the last 10 years have proceeded at a fast pace with comprehensive promotion; and (3) Coupled and coupled coordination degrees between urbanization and ecosystem services show increasing trends. This research can provide a theoretical basis for the region’s rapid economic development in the balance.

The current study was aimed to explore the differential effects on Gram-positive and Gram-negative freshwater sediment bacterial isolates upon exposure to nano-particles and bulk particles of Al₂O₃ at low concentrations (0.25, 0.5, and 1 mg/L). The Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa was more susceptible to both the nano-forms and bulk forms than the Gram-positive Bacillus altitudinis. The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and release of lipopolysaccharide due to membrane damage were dependent on the dose of nano-Al₂O₃. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) studies confirmed the attachment of nano-Al₂O₃ on bacterial cells, which may lead to subsequent changes in the cell membrane composition and integrity. Internalization of nano-Al₂O₃ was estimated to be more for P. aeruginosa than for B. altitudinis cells. As a role of defense mechanism, the biofilm formation and production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs; polysaccharide and protein) were increased with respect to the concentration of toxicant. Nano-Al₂O₃ was estimated to cause more DNA damage than the bulk particles in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains.

Water quality was measured at eight stations on the Buyuk Menderes River in Turkey (Adıgüzel dam, Yenice regülator, Sarayköy bridge, Feslek regülator, Yenipazar bridge, Aydın bridge, Koçarlı bridge, Söke regülator) between 2000 and 2013 in February, April, June, August, October and December. The resulting data were evaluated in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO), ammoniac–nitrogen (NH₃–N), nitrite–nitrogen (NO₂–N), nitrate–nitrogen (NO₃–N) and orthophosphate (o-PO₄) aquaculture. According to the analysis, while river water pollution generally varied during each year, samples from certain measurement points demonstrated high pollution levels throughout the year. In this study, water parameters were classified according to the “Turkish water pollution control regulation.” The studied parameters are also compared with TS 266 and WHO guidelines. While levels at Sarayköy station were generally higher than other stations, values at Adıgüzel dam were the lowest, giving it the best water quality of the eight stations. The highest values on a yearly basis were obtained in 2007 due to the severe drought in the Menderes basin within which irrigation water levels fell to 4255 m³/ha. The BOD, COD levels are the lowest in 2009 and highest in 2007; the DO level is lowest in 2007 and highest in 2009; NH₃–N, NO₂–N, and NO₃–N parameters are the lowest in 2007 and highest in 2009; and the o-PO₄ are at the lowest level in 2004 and seen as the highest in 2007. Analysis of the data was performed by SPSS 21 statistics program. One direction ANOVA was applied to the data, which were also subject to Tukey multiple comparison tests. Differences between groups were evaluated at p < 0.05. Box–plot graphs were used to demonstrate the data distribution. In the study, it was analyzed, the effect of fish species and pollution involved in the Büyük Menderes River so far on fish species.

The high levels of antibiotic residues in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plants (PWWTPs) make these plants the hotspots for the proliferation of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). This study investigated the fate and removal of 11 ARG subtypes for sulfonamide, tetracycline, β-lactam, and macrolide resistance in each processing stage of two full-scale PWWTPs in northern China. The levels of typical ARG subtypes in the final effluents ranged from (2.56 ± 0.13) × 10¹ to (2.36 ± 0.11) × 10⁷ copies/ml. The absolute abundance of ARGs in effluents accounted for only 0.03–78.1 % of influents of the two PWWTPs, while the majority of the ARGs were transported to the dewatered sludge with concentrations from (2.65 ± 0.43) × 10⁵ to (4.27 ± 0.03) × 10¹⁰ copies/g dry weight (dw). The total loads of ARGs discharged through dewatered sludge plus effluent was 1.01–14.09-fold higher than that in the raw influents, suggesting the proliferation of ARGs occurred in the wastewater treatment. The proliferation of ARGs mainly occurs in biological treatment process, such as aeration tank, anoxic tank, sequencing batch reactor (SBR), and bio-contact oxidation, facilitates the proliferation of various ARGs, implying significant replication of certain ARG subtypes may be attributable to microbial growth. Chemical oxidation seems promising to remove ARGs, with removal efficiency ranged from 29.3 to 85.7 %, while the partial correlation analysis showed significant correlations between antibiotic concentration and ARG removal. Thus, the high antibiotic residues within the PWWTPs may have an influence on the proliferation, fate, and removal of the associated ARG subtypes.

As many countries have privatized their water industries, there is increasing interest in comparing the efficiency of public and private water and sewerage companies (WaSCs). However, previous studies have not considered that privatization can be carried out following two main approaches: fully private WaSCs, which involve the sale of utilities to the private sector, and concessionary WaSCs, in which only the operation of the services is privatized. This paper investigates, for the first time, the impact of both privatization approaches on the efficiency of WaSCs. In doing so, data envelopment analysis (DEA) was applied. However, unlike traditional models, the metafrontier concept was used in this research as it cannot be assumed that fully private and concessionary WaSCs share the same production frontier. The empirical application focused on the Chilean water industry as it was privatized from 1998 to 2004 following the two approaches described. The results suggest that the performance of fully private WaSCs is better than that of concessionary WaSCs. The conclusions of this study will be of great interest to water authorities worldwide facing the challenge of water industry privatization.

Indicators are substances that change color as the pH of the medium. Many of these substances are dyes of synthetic origin. The mulala plant (Euclea natalensis), which roots are commonly used by rural communities for their oral hygiene, and roseira (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), an ornamental plant, are abundant in Mozambique. Currently, synthetic acid-base indicators are most commonly used but have environmental implications and, on the other hand, are expensive products, so the demand for natural indicators started. This study investigated the applicability of aqueous extracts of H. rosa-sinensis and E. natalensis as acid-base indicators. Ground on this work, the extracts can be used as acid-base indicators. On the basis of the absorption spectroscopy in both the UV-Vis region and previous studies, it was possible to preliminarily pinpoint anthocyanins and naphthoquinones as responsible for the shifting of colors depending on the pH range of aqueous extracts of H. rosa-sinensis and E. natalensis. These natural indicators are easily accessible, inexpensive, easy to extract, environmentally safe, and locally available.

Soil balls containing the so-called effective microorganisms (EM) have been applied to improve water quality of small ponds, lakes, and streams worldwide. However, neither the physical conditions facilitating their proper application nor the diversity of microbial community in such soil balls have been investigated. In this study, the application of 0.75 % of hardener to the soil balls exerted almost neutral pH (pH 7.3) which caused up to a fourfold increased hardness of the soil ball. Moreover, the 0.75 % of hardener in the soil ball also improved the water quality due to a significant reduction in dissolved oxygen, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen contents. Metagenomic analysis of the microbial community in the soil ball with 0.75 % hardener was compared with control (traditional soil ball) through next-generation sequencing. The traditional soil ball microbial community comprised 96.1 % bacteria, 2.7 % eukaryota, and 1 % archaea, whereas the soil ball with 0.75 % hardener comprised 71.4 % bacteria, 27.9 % eukaryota, and 0.2 % viruses. Additionally, metagenomic profiles for both traditional and improved soil balls revealed that the various xenobiotic biodegradation, such as those for caprolactam, atrazine, xylene, toluene, styrene, bisphenol, and chlorocyclohexane might be responsible for organic waste cleanup.

Aquaponics has attracted worldwide attention in recent years and is considered as an alternative technology for conventional aquaculture. In this study, common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and pakchoi (Brassica chinensis) were cultured in lab-scale aquaponics, and attempts were conducted to enhance its nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUE) through two optimization methods, i.e., nitrifies addition (NA) and filler gradation (FG). Results showed that NA and FG could improve the NUE of aquaponics by 8.8 and 16.0 %, respectively, compared with control. The total ammonia (TAN) and nitrite (NO₂⁻) concentrations in NA and FG systems were maintained at relatively low level (TAN < 0.5 mg/L, NO₂⁻ < 0.1 mg/L), which demonstrated that both the NA and FG could provide non-toxic water environment for fish culture. Nitrous oxide conversion ratio of the control, NA, and FG were 0.8, 1.2, and 1.7 %, respectively, indicating that media-based aquaponics also contributed to global warming. Although the two proposed attempts in this study caused more N₂O emission, they made new breakthrough in improving the NUE of aquaponics.

Cadmium (Cd) contamination is a worldwide environmental problem, and remediation of Cd pollution is of great significance for food production as well as human health. Here, the responses of sweet sorghum cv. ‘M-81E’ to cadmium stress were studied for its potential as an energy plant in restoring soils contaminated by cadmium. In hydroponic experiments, the biomass of ‘M-81E’ showed no obvious change under 10 μM cadmium treatment. Cadmium concentration was the highest in roots of seedlings as well as mature plants, but in agricultural practice, the valuable and harvested parts of sweet sorghum are shoots, so promoting the translocation of cadmium to shoots is of great importance in order to improve its phytoremediation capacity. Further histochemical assays with dithizone staining revealed that cadmium was mainly concentrated in the stele of roots and scattered in intercellular space of caulicles. Moreover, the correlation analysis showed that Cd had a negative relationship with iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and manganese (Mn) in caulicles and leaves and a positive relationship with Fe in roots. These results implied that cadmium might compete with Fe, Zn, and Mn for the transport binding sites and further prevent their translocation to shoots. In addition, transmission electron microscopic observations showed that under 100 μM cadmium treatment, the structure of chloroplast was impaired and the cell wall of vascular bundle cells in leaves and xylem and phloem cells in roots turned thicker compared to control. In summary, morphophysiological characteristic analysis demonstrated sweet sorghum can absorb cadmium and the growth is not negatively affected by mild level cadmium stress; thus, it is a promising material for the phytoremediation of cadmium-contaminated soils considering its economic benefit. This study also points out potential strategies to improve the phytoremediation capacity of sweet sorghum through genetic modification of transporters and cell wall components.

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of the dietary levels of protein, methionine (Met), as well as probiotic on productive performance, feed utilization, and environmental pollution by N in Lohmann Brown laying hens. A total number of 160 Lohmann Brown laying hens at 20 weeks of age were randomly divided into 8 treatment groups using a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design experiment. The experiment involved two levels of crude protein (16 and 18 %), two levels of Met (0.45 and 0.50 %), and two concentrations of probiotic (0 or 1 g/kg diet, with a concentration of 10¹⁰ CFU/g of Lactobacillus acidophilus) within 20–42 weeks of age. Results revealed that egg production parameters were significantly (P < 0.01) improved for hens fed diets of 18 % CP comparing with that of 16 % protein within the period from 26 to 30 weeks of age. Protein utilization and feed efficiency values were enhanced with 0.67 and 0.72 % Met during the period of 26–30 weeks of the age. For the N pollution, results showed that increasing crude protein in the diet from 16 to 18 % caused significant (P < 0.01) increase in the excreted N from 0.349 to 0.492 g/d. The methionine level of 0.72 % recorded the highest values of total consumed N being 3.98 g/d and excreted N being 0.527 g/d comparing with the other levels. It could be concluded that the best productive performance could be given by using 0.72 % total sulfur amino acids (TSAA). Furthermore, the dietary level of 18 % CP with 0.72 % Met is preferred in feeding laying hens through the whole experimental period. Ecologically, reducing the level of crude protein in layer diets to be 16 % along with the supplementation of Met can play an important role in minimizing the pollution with N from poultry excretion.