Agricultural land use is widely accepted to elicit changes on surrounding environment and neighboring ecosystems. Meanwhile, the impact of different types of agricultural land use likely cause a variety of impacts on nearby ecosystems and the organisms that inhabit them. Freshwater systems support a wide range of organisms—from infaunal or epifaunal invertebrates to mobile pelagic and littoral fish species. The focus of this study was to determine how agricultural activity in the upstream catchment influences sediment properties and the resulting ability of three distinct invertebrate species to survive and reproduce in these different sediments. This will be the first study that evaluates the utility of the sediment quality triad when assessing the impact of agricultural activity on invertebrate growth, reproduction, and survival. In analyzing sediment and water chemistry, as well as metal and pesticide levels, none of the predictor variables were able to adequately explain the variation seen in any of the biological endpoints (reproduction, mortality, growth, or biomass). Although none of the factors measured in this experiment could explain the variation seen in biological endpoints, the experimental approach was informative in delineating biological trends between sediments subject to varying levels of agricultural activity. Although an experiment of this nature was not able to identify a causal mechanism to explain the variation in invertebrate biological endpoint, it is still extremely useful as an exploratory approach to assess relative sediment toxicity.

Qaroun and Wadi El-Rayan lakes are exposed to a huge amount of discharges from different sources and numerous anthropogenic activities. Therefore, the present work aimed to evaluate the impacts of metal pollution on two wild fish species; Tilapia zillii and Mugil cephalus collected from lake Qaroun (eastern and western parts) and Wadi El-Rayan lakes (upper and lower lakes). Accumulation of metals (Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb) in water, sediment, and five vital tissues as well as metal pollution index (MPI), contamination factor (CF), and pollution load index (PLI) were integrated as metal pollution biomarkers. Generally, these integrated endpoints had the same trend and indicated that the eastern part of lake Qaroun was the most polluted site followed by the lower lake of Wadi El-Rayan. To assess the environmental genotoxicity, the percentage DNA damage in different tissues of both fish species was estimated using the comet assay technique. The percentage of DNA damages showed tissue-, species- and site-specification. Hazard index (HI) has been used as an evaluation index for human health associated with fish consumption at the studied sites. This index showed that all metals were in the safe limits at normal consumption levels while adverse health effects are expected to occur at the subsistence consumption level. The safe HI for each metal at normal consumption level does not neglect that the combined cumulative risk impact of all metals is a sign of warning and the health of fish consumers nearby contaminated sites is threatened.

Textile industry is responsible for producing a large amount of effluent. The objective of the present study was to treat the raw effluent of a textile manufacturer through heterogeneous photocatalysis (TiO₂/UVₛₒₗₐᵣ). Four types of effluents were evaluated: raw (RE), treated by the manufacturer (MTE), and exposed to photocatalysis in the presence (PTETi) and absence (PTE) of titanium dioxide (TiO₂). They were evaluated for physical, chemical, and toxicological parameters. In regard to dissolved oxygen (DO) contents, MTE, PTETi, and PTE effluents increased values when compared with RE effluent. Color degradation was more efficient by MTE effluent, but the chemical oxygen demand (COD) values of the treated effluents were not in accordance with Brazilian norms. Besides that, the toxicity test with Allium cepa L. shows cytotoxicity by MTE (24 and 48 h) effluent. PTETi and PTE (24 h) effluents did not show cytotoxicity, but PTETi-48 h showed a significant decrease in mitotic index. The immobility/mortality test with Artemia salina L. showed toxicity of the RE and MTE effluents in concentrations of 100% and 50%. In the case of the phototreated effluents, there was only toxicity in the concentration of 100%. Thus, so generally, photocatalytic treatments were more efficient than the treatment applied by the manufacturer; however, it is necessary to improve a new stage in the treatment.

Anaerobic bioremediation of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) under high concentration conditions is difficult. Anaerobic dechlorination of PCE occurs with synergetic reactions, fermentation, and sulfate-reduction; however, the way in which high concentrations of PCE affects these reactions is still poorly understood. This study aims to elucidate how high concentrations of PCE affect fermentation and sulfate-reduction, as well as PCE dechlorination. Laboratory dechlorination tests were performed using a wide concentration range of PCE between 2 and 125 mg/L added to a microbial consortium that had been continuously cultivated in the laboratory and completely dechlorinated PCE for over 4 years. Fermentation of lactate, reduction of sulfate, and dechlorination of PCE were monitored in addition to microbial activities based on RNA. All three reactions, fermentation, sulfate-reduction, and PCE dechlorination were observed to be inhibited. The inhibition for fermentation, sulfate-reduction, and dechlorination occurred when PCE concentrations were higher than 125, 75, and 30 mg/L, respectively. The fermenter, Anaerotignum, and the sulfate-reducer, Desulfosporosinus, were active when the dechlorination was inhibited with 30 mg/L of PCE. These findings suggest that there is interference of PCE dechlorination, despite the occurrence of fermentation and sulfate reduction. Bioaugmentation with a PCE dechlorinator that is tolerant to high PCE concentrations can be a possible solution for bioremediation of PCE when its concentrations are greater than 30 mg/L.

Soil contamination by pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) has attracted the attention of many researchers. Continued release of these products into the environment can compromise the health of non-target organisms as well as interfere in ecological interactions between species. We hypothesized that contamination of the soil by these products affects the gut microbiota of macrodecomposers that live in symbiosis with these microorganisms and therefore interferes with the assimilation of nutrients by these animals. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effects of soil contaminated by triclosan (TCS) and chlorhexidine (CHX) by analyzing changes in nutrient assimilation and in the assimilation pattern of carbon sources from the Balloniscus selowii gut microbiota. The food consumption rate in B. selowii was not altered by biocides, and assimilation rate as well as assimilation efficiency (%) decreased under triclosan treatment. Based on the results obtained, the soil and gut microbiota demonstrated similar response to each study treatment when compared to other treatments. However, there were no significant differences in the diversity, evenness, and richness values. Dehydrogenase activity showed no significant differences between TCS and CHX exposure and control. In this study, exposure to TCS and CHX biocides changed the metabolic profile of the soil microbiota and consequently of the B. selowii digestive tract. With TCS exposure, this change was enough to affect the assimilation of nutrients by B. selowii. The continuous release of antimicrobials such as chlorhexidine and triclosan into the environment may compromise the health of non-target organisms and interfere with symbiotic relationships.

In this study, the forest landscape in the Beijing mountain area is assessed using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs model. The results showed the natural forests have higher functional capital than the planted forests and different species contribute to different ecological functions. Specifically, Larix gmelinii forests have the highest water resources and soil conservation function which are about 334.14 m³ hm⁻² year⁻¹ and 115.92 t hm⁻² year⁻¹; Betula allegansis forests have the highest carbon storage and biodiversity function which are about 128.46 t hm⁻² year⁻¹ and 0.76. Besides soil, water is conserved more within coniferous forests than within broadleaf forests. Carbon sequestration and the functional capacity for biodiversity within a unit area of coniferous forests are much smaller than those within a unit area of a broadleaf forest. Previous studies highlight the forest management strategies will influence the ecosystem functions while in the current studies we also found the species option during the afforestation is equally important and protecting of the natural forests is more important than afforestation for maintaining the ecological functional capitals.

The poultry industry in the European Union produces 13 million tons of manure annually, which represents a major health and environmental challenge. Composting is an environmental-friendly technique for the management of manure, but there are few studies about antibiotic residues and antimicrobial resistances at a field scale. The goal of this study was to determine if the composting of poultry manure at a field scale would result in the reduction of antibiotic residues, pathogenic bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the final fertilizer product. A 10-week composting of poultry manure spiked with enrofloxacin, doxycycline, and ciprofloxacin was performed. The determination of antibiotics residues and 22 selected ARGs was carried out together with the identification of bacteria by metagenomics. In the case of ciprofloxacin and doxycycline, a 90% decrease was observed after composting for 3 weeks. Sixteen ARGs were detected at the beginning of the experiment; 12 of them decreased from week 0 to week 10 (reduction of 73.7–99.99%). The presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria, such as, Campylobacter coli or commensal bacteria such as Escherichia coli decreases along the composting process. In conclusion, 10-week composting of poultry manure promotes the reduction of antibiotic residues and most of the ARGs and pathogenic bacteria.

The objective of this study was the experimental evaluation of ozonation as an additional treatment step for the removal emerging contaminants from secondary effluents of two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), one receiving a primarily domestic wastewater (WWTP-A), and the other one domestic sewage together with pretreated tannery wastewater streams (WWTP-B). The experimental runs were conducted at two different pH values (i.e., original pH and adjusted pH of 10) and at six different ozone doses ranging between 0.2 and 1.5 mg O₃/mg DOC. A total of 20 compounds, including 12 micropollutants (MPs) and 8 metabolites, were selected as the target analytes for the evaluation of ozonation performance. When the tested MPs and metabolites were considered individually, the maximum elimination level for each compound was reached at different doses; therefore, optimum ozone doses were determined based on the reduction of the total MP content. Ozonation at the original pH with an ozone dose in the range of 0.4–0.6 and 0.8–1.0 mg O₃/mg DOC was selected as the optimum operating condition for WWTP-A and WWTP-B, respectively, both resulting in an average overall removal efficiency of 55%. Ozone treatment yielded only poor elimination for o-desmethyl naproxen (15%), which was found to be by far the main contributor accounting alone for approximately 30% of the total MP concentration in the secondary effluents. The systematic approach used in this study could well be adopted as a guide to other domestic and municipal WWTPs, which are thought to have a highly variable composition in terms of the MPs and metabolites.

The main objective of this study is to lower the greenhouse gases by developing and optimizing a solar flat plate collector. The rifled tube is integrated into the collector to increase the thermal heat transfer thereby improving its performance. Two flat plate collectors, one with in-housed longitudinal fins and another without fins of 0.5 m² collector area, have been intended and fabricated with provisions for K-type thermocouples to examine the temperature variations inside the collector for different working fluids. This current study reveals using CuO and Al₂O₃ nanoparticles in varying weight fractions in incremental order to study the effect of weight fractions on the efficiency of the collector. The simulation was done using computational fluid dynamics both for the finned and without finned tube collectors separately and the outcome of the results for the collector outlet temperatures is compared with the experimental one and results show a valuable outcome for the intended collectors. Initially, the test was conducted with pure distilled water as working fluid and further nanoparticles were opted and doped inside the collector side for varying weight fractions of 0.2% and 0.4% and their results are compared. The experimental results showed an improved heat transfer was pragmatic in the collector side for using nanoparticles. Mixing the nanofluids exhibited superior efficiency on the collector side. The results showed after successful trials of experimentation, doping of CuO nanoparticles by varying weight fractions of 0.2% and 0.4%, augmentation of the collector (unfinned) efficiency is 2.1% and 4.05%, and similarly for finned tube collector, it is 3.02% and 5.5% for same weight fractions. In order to improve the thermal efficiency of collector, CuO is replaced by Al₂O₃ nanoparticles; for dissimilar weight fractions, the efficiency is enhanced nearly by 3.7% and 6.54% for unfinned tube collector, and for the finned tube, the collector is 4.8% and 7.8% respectively, compared with the base working fluid (water). Experimentation of the collectors with finned tube type achieved a superior efficiency compared with that of unfinned tube collectors which is proved to be higher when used for nanofluids to that of the base working fluid water.

Securing a moderate level of social acceptance for obnoxious facilities, public facilities that have negative effects, such as odors, noise, or other disruptions, is critical to infrastructure plans. For wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), also obnoxious facilities, upgrading and expanding the capacity of existing WWTP, are more important than the construction of new plants, in some regions. This study analyzes and compares the social acceptance of different types of WWTP upgrades and capacity expansion projects. Contingent valuation method is used to elicit South Korean households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for preventing the expansion of a WWTP. The aggregated WTP is interpreted from the perspective of social conflict costs. The results show that the annual mean WTP of South Korean households to prevent WWTP expansion ranges from KRW 32,058 (US $27.61) to KRW 45,793 (US $39.44) depending on spatial location, which implies that the social conflict costs for the WWTP expansion in South Korea are considerable. It is also found that an underground WWTP at current site is a best alternative to lower the social conflict costs; it is even better than relocation an existing WWTP to another area. Several related policy implications are provided based on the analysis results.