The environment is an indispensable dimension of human life and affects important concepts such as health, quality of life, life satisfaction, and well-being. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of environmental elements such as air quality, forest area, waste services, and noise pollution on the well-being in Turkey. The data of the research were obtained from the well-being index for the Provinces Study prepared by the Turkey Statistical Institute in 2015. A hierarchical multiple regression model was performed to predict the relationship between the environmental variables and well-being by using the Statistical Package for Social Science. Income and education level of provinces were controlled variables of model. At the end of analyses, it was found out that only forest area was positively related with well-being (β = 0.191, t = 2.369, p = 0.020), and there were no association between the air pollution, the noise problems, waste services, and dependent variable. The survey results are expected to provide important evidence-based information about an association between environment and well-being to policymakers and academicians on environmental health and public health.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of tomato plants to efficiently use the nitrogen (N) of a recirculation aquaponic system (RAS) and to evaluate the effects of foliar fertilization as a complement to the water nutrition on the growth of the two tomato cultivars. The significant effect of six macro- and seven micronutrients was evaluated on the plant growth and on the fruit yield. Two experiments were performed in a nutrient film aquaponic unit. The first experiment was designed to study the effects of foliar fertilization on the seedlings of two tomato cultivars Costoluto Genovese (CG) (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and Currant tomato (Ct) (Solanum pimpinellifolium) with 8% of weekly water exchange (WE8%-RAS). The foliar fertilizer was formulated with N restriction in the last 11 weeks (TF1). In the second experiment, two other foliar fertilization treatments (TF2 and TF3) were applied with a concentration of nutrients twice and triple that in TF1, but with a lower proportion of NPK ratio. These treatments were tested on the cultivar CG in a RAS with zero water exchange (WE0%-RAS). The data from the 1st experiment showed a positive effect of the foliar fertilization on the yield of both cultivars. The fertilization markedly influenced the dry matter weight of the CG; however, this effect was not observed in the Ct. The root length of both cultivars was positively influenced by the P content, whereas the plant height was affected by the excess of Co and S. According to the results from the 2nd experiment, the TF2 plants had the highest number of fruits with a high mean weight. The system was efficient in utilizing N from fish tank; the water K favored the yield of the CG fruit and the foliar K favored the growth of the TF2 plants. With a decrease in the foliar N, the CG plants were able to absorb 27.5% of the NO₃⁻ and 7.06% of total ammonia nitrogen from water. The absolute and relative growth rate of Nile tilapia was not affected by the rate of water exchange. Fulton’s condition factor of the total length and weight curve indicated that fish from WE8%-RAS had wider bodies than the fish from WE0%-RAS at the same length range. Nitrate and P in the final effluent were lower than the maximum reference values allowed for the discharged water.

One of the important agents menacing buildings’ employees and residents’ health is the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the indoor environment. The present research studied the VOC emission to evaluate indoor air quality (IAQ) through studying in-laboratory processes and tasks. On account of that, three different pollutants (acetone, benzene, and toluene) were chosen as candidate VOCs, and Environmental Engineering Research Center at Sahand University of Technology was selected as a sample laboratory for each VOC. Using CFD model, concentrations of pollutants under unsteady state in a three-dimensional geometry at various temperatures were provided. To validate the considered model, the modeling results were compared to experimental data. Health risk was evaluated through the building using the OEL-C, OEL-STEL, and OEL-TWA parameters for the three pollutants. According to the mentioned parameters and the modeling results, 1 h following the emission, in order to reduce the health risk associated with short-term exposure to the emission, the staff should observe a minimum distance of 3, 2, and 1.8 m to the sources of acetone, benzene, and toluene, respectively. This is while, since average concentration of emission within the laboratory in an 8-h period is several times as large as OEL-TWA, then the laboratory staffs are strictly recommended not to work in the laboratory for long hours. Furthermore, using the results of this research, the staff can detect safe locations within the laboratory without any need to use emission monitoring equipment.

Heavy metals attract a great deal of attention nowadays due to their potential accumulation in living creatures and transference in the food chain. Sediments of water reservoirs are considered to be a source of accumulation of these metals that develop in response to human activities and soil erosion. This study collected 180 samples of the surface sediments of water reservoir 1 at Chahnimeh in Sistan. Efficiency of the ANFIS model was evaluated to estimate the five bonds following the measurement of parameters in the laboratory.The following results were obtained for the parameters: organic carbon (OC) %, 0.31; cation exchange capacity (CEC), 37.07 Cmol kg; total Pb, 25.19 mg/kg; clay %, 45.87; and silt %, 39.02. These parameters were used as input for the training model. In the output layer, lead bonds were chosen as modeling targets in the following way: Pb f1 (4.61); Pb f2 (0.54); Pb f3 (16.28); Pb f4 (3.42); and Pb f5 (0.38) mg/kg. The best input compound in this model was chosen using the gamma test. From a total of 180, 88 data were considered for the model training section. Eventually, the neural-fuzzy model (subtractive clustering), developed for the prediction of lead bonds in the studied region, was able to account for over 99% of lead bonds in the sediments; considering statistical criteria of root mean squares error or RMSE (0.0337–0.0813) and determination coefficient or R² (0.92–0.99), this model showed good performance with regard to prediction.

Exceptional vertical migration ability provides the cyanobacterium Microcystis with competitive advantages in bloom formation and dominance establishment. Studies have been conducted on the vertical migration patterns of Microcystis since the 1970s; however, bloom simulations remain limited. Here, we used a simple model based on the viscous drag force of turbulence and analysed the motion characteristics of Microcystis colonies. The vertical distribution of turbulent kinetic energy (KZ), cell concentration and colony size profiles in Lake Taihu (Meiliang Bay and Gonghu Bay) and the critical vertical turbulent kinetic energy of colonies (TKZ, i.e. the anti-turbulence ability of colonies) were tested. The results showed that, under steady KZ profiles, colonies had relative rest positions (RRPs) where KZ ≈ TKZ and colonies of the same size gathered together. The vertical migration patterns were affected more by turbulence than by density (colony mass density) if the average KZ of the water column (MKZ) was not equal to TKZ. If MKZ ≈ TKZ, the colonies could exhibit a diurnal pattern of sinking at noon and floating upwards before dawn without steady RRPs. Our results suggest that studies on RRPs may offer optimizations for bloom forecast and control in the future due to easier simulation of KZ profiles than that of flow fields.

Natural gas and oil extraction, while meeting much of our current energy demand, also generates large volumes of waste water (“produced water”) that creates risks for groundwater contamination when spilled. Weld County, Colorado, where the majority of extraction occurs in Colorado, was used as a case study to understand how groundwater impacts were related to spill details including volumes spilled, area impacted, and depth to groundwater. Publically available produced water production and spill data were analyzed to determine if improvements could be made to reduce the water intensity of oil and gas drilling. The depth to groundwater significantly affected the likelihood of groundwater contamination at spill sites. Since spills often occur at oil and gas well pads, extraction site selection should preclude those areas that have shallow groundwater. Evaluation of produced water generation and produced water spilled reveal that although larger-scale operations did generate less relative produced water per energy generated, the total volume of produced water spilled by an operator was linearly correlated with the scale of the operation. These results suggest that employing fewer, large-scale operators would help to reduce the overall volume of water generated but not the overall volume spilled. The results from this research have important regulation and policy implications that can help mitigate the increased threat of groundwater contamination from produced water spills.

Due to increasing use and release, both multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and 17β-estradiol (E2) may co-exist and interact with each other in aquatic environments. However, little is known about their combined effects on non-target organisms, especially in the presence of other environmental factors. In this study, the interplay between MWCNTs and E2 in the early life stages of zebrafish was investigated, focusing on the alterations in estrogenic responses with and without other environmental factors. There were no significant differences in the hatchability, mortality, or physical development of zebrafish in any treatments. Compared with E2 exposure, the E2-induced estrogenic responses (vtg1, vtg3, and esr1 genes) in zebrafish were markedly reduced to baseline by the presence of MWCNTs in most cases, indicating a strong protective effect. Furthermore, this inhibitive effect was not significantly changed by the preloading of natural organic matter (NOM) on MWCNTs. Nevertheless, the addition of ammonia nitrogen in the mixtures of MWCNTs and E2 alleviated the protective effect of MWCNTs, resuscitating the E2-induced estrogenic responses in zebrafish. These findings highlight the influence of carbon nanomaterials on the bioavailability of co-contaminants in organisms. The widespread environmental factors in natural environments should also be taken into consideration when the combined toxicity of nanomaterials and contaminants is discussed.

This study combined the original unsaturated-column-percolation test with X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis to understand how lead is transformed into lead-insoluble phase and immobilized by hydroxyapatite during lead migration in the water-unsaturated soil of different lead mobilities. The amounts of lead migrated from the soils without hydroxyapatite ranged from 4 to 46%, depending on the lead mobilities of soils. On the other hand, those of soils with hydroxyapatite were greatly suppressed by > 95% as compared with those without hydroxyapatite. The XRD analysis showed that the amounts of lead transformed into pyromorphite were compatible with those of lead migrated from the soil irrespective of the different lead mobilities. To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the first experimental evidence that lead migration can induce lead to transform into pyromorphite in the water-unsaturated soil. In addition, this study quantitatively demonstrates that the amount of lead migrated is almost equal to that of lead formed into pyromorphite. Thus, it was found that even if soluble lead remains after the application of immobilization material, it would be immobilized by the material during the lead migration as long as adequate material is applied to the soil.

Due to its key role in the contamination of natural resources, the assessment of raw and treated wastewater effluents is a current major concern and urges comprehensive analytical methods capable of selectively capturing the chemodiversity of these samples. In this context, the overall objective of this work can be summarized as (i) the assessment of the performance of secondary and tertiary (advanced oxidation) wastewater treatments through multivariate analysis followed by (ii) the comprehensive characterization of wastewater samples based on their spectral fingerprints and a combination of suspect and non-target screening approaches. Several compounds, belonging to different sources of contamination were annotated and/or partially identified: pharmaceuticals, metabolites and transformation compounds, human activity markers, surfactants, and polyethoxy compounds. These results highlight the contribution of filtering and screening tools such as monoisotopic exact mass, mass defect, MS/MS data-dependent acquisitions, isotopic pattern and retention time to the selection, and the identification of environmental contaminants and their metabolites/degradation products. This paper completes the target study conducted in the SIPIBEL site and offers an alternative for the assessment of treatment processes by broadening the spectrum to a larger number of compounds and the correlations between them.

A mixed cyanobacterial-mixotrophic algal population, dominated by the filamentous cyanobacterium Leptolyngbya sp. and the microalga Ochromonas (which contributed to the total photosynthetic population with rates of less than 5%), was studied under non-aseptic conditions for its efficiency to remove organic and inorganic compounds from different types of wastes/wastewaters while simultaneously producing lipids. Second cheese whey, poplar sawdust, and grass hydrolysates were used in lab-scale experiments, in photobioreactors that operated under aerobic conditions with different initial nutrient (C, N and P) concentrations. Nutrient removal rates, biomass productivity, and the maximum oil production rates were determined. The highest lipid production was achieved using the biologically treated dairy effluent (up to 14.8% oil in dry biomass corresponding to 124 mg L⁻¹) which also led to high nutrient removal rates (up to 94%). Lipids synthesized by the microbial consortium contained high percentages of saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids (up to 75% in total lipids) for all the substrates tested, which implies that the produced biomass may be harnessed as a source of biodiesel.