The deterioration of water quality in Taihu Lake, China, has caused widespread concern in recent years. The primary pollution sources of Taihu Lake are its inflow rivers. Effective environmental water management strategies need to be implemented in these rivers to improve the water quality of Taihu Lake and to promote sustainable development in the region. In this study, the QUAL2K model is used in conjunction with the trial and error approach to assess permissible load capacities for the Wujin River (a major tributary of Taihu Lake) in terms of COD, NH₃-N, TN, and TP. Results show that permissible annual loads for these pollutants are 5216.31, 491.71, 948.53, and 104.38 t, respectively. This suggests that COD, NH₃-N, TN, and TP loads in the Wujin River catchment need to be reduced by 13.35, 27.26, 47.75, and 37.08 %, respectively, to satisfy national water quality objectives. Total amount control measures are proposed to control and reduce pollution loads of the Wujin River catchment. The method applied in this study should provide a sound basis for water environmental management decision-making.

In the present study, sugar beet mud (SBM) and pulp (SBP) produced as a waste by-products of the sugar industry were mixed with cattle dung (CD) at different ratios on dry weight basis for vermicomposting with Eisenia fetida. Minimum mortality and highest population of worms were observed in 20:80 (SBM₂₀) mixture of SBM and 10:90 (SBP₁₀) ratios. However, increased percentages of wastes significantly affected the growth and fecundity of worms. Nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, sodium, increased from initial feed mixture to final products (i.e., vermicompost), while organic carbon (OC), C:N ratio and electrical conductivity (EC) declined in all the products of vermicomposting. Although there was an increase in the contents of all the heavy metals except copper, chromium, and iron in SBM, the contents were less than the international standards for compost which indicates that the vermicompost can be used in the fields without any ill effects on the soil. Allium cepa root chromosomal aberration assay was used to evaluate the genotoxicity of pre- and post-vermicomposted SBM to understand the effect of vermicomposting on the reduction of toxicity. Genotoxicity analysis of post-vermicomposted samples of SBM revealed 18–75 % decline in the aberration frequencies. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was recorded to identify the changes in texture in the control and vermicomposted samples. The vermicomposted mixtures in the presence of earthworms confirm more numerous surface irregularities that prove to be good manure.

To study the responses of digestive system of the freshwater crab Sinopotamon henanense to the exposure with cadmium (Cd), crabs were acutely exposed to 7.25, 14.50, and 29.00 mg/l Cd for 96 h and subchronically exposed to 0.725, 1.450, and 2.900 mg/l for 21 days. Cd bioaccumulation in the hepatopancreas and digestive tract (esophagus and intestine) was examined. Furthermore, histopathological alterations of the esophagus, midgut, hindgut, and hepatopancreas were assessed in animals from the 29.0 and 2.90 mg/l Cd treatment groups, and expression of metallothionein messenger RNA (MT mRNA) in the hepatopancreas and intestine was measured in all treatment groups. The results showed difference in the middle and high concentrations between acute and subchronic treatment groups. Cd content in digestive tract after acute 14.5 and 29.0 mg/l Cd exposure was significantly higher than that at subchronic 1.45 and 2.90 mg/l exposure, but Cd levels in hepatopancreas were not significantly different under the same condition. Acute exposure to Cd induced greater morphological damage than subchronic exposure: large areas of epithelial cells were necrotic in hepatopancreas and midgut, which detached from the basal lamina. Vacuolated muscle cells were observed in the hindgut of animals from the acute exposure group, but the changes of esophageal morphology were not obvious after acute or subchronic treatments. The expression of MT mRNA increased with increasing Cd concentration, and MT mRNA level in acute exposure groups was significantly lower when compared to the subchronic exposure groups. Higher Cd content and lower MT mRNA expression in the acutely exposed groups may be responsible for more severe damage of digestive system in these exposure groups.

Due to their mobility and toxicity, crude oil volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are representative components for oil pipeline contaminated sites detection. Therefore, contaminated location risk assessment, with airborne light detection and ranging (LIDAR) survey, in particular, requires ground-based determinative methods for oil VOCs, the interaction between oil VOCs and soil, and information on how they diffuse from underground into atmosphere. First, we developed a method for determination of crude oil VOC binary mixtures (take n-pentane and n-hexane as examples), taking synergistic effects of VOC mixtures on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers into consideration. Using this method, we further aim to extract VOCs from small volumes, for example, from soil pores, using a custom-made sampling device for nondestructive SPME fiber intrusion, and to study VOC transport through heterogeneous porous media. Second, specific surface Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis was conducted and used for estimation of VOC isotherm parameters in soil. Finally, two models were fitted for VOC emission prediction, and the results were compared to the experimental emission results. It was found that free diffusion mode worked well, and an empirical correction factor seems to be needed for the other model to adapt to our condition for single and binary systems.

The present study examined the response of zebrafish embryos exposed to different concentrations (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 mg/L) of monocrotophos under static conditions for 96 h. We found that mortality had occurred within 48 h at all test concentrations, later insignificant mortality was observed. Monocrotophos (MCP) can be rated as moderately toxic to the Zebrafish embryos with a 96-h median lethal concentration (LC₅₀) of 37.44 ± 3.32 mg/L. In contrast, it greatly affected the development of zebrafish embryos by inducing several developmental abnormalities like pericardial edema, altered heart development, spinal and vertebral anomalies in a concentration-dependent manner. A significant percent reduction in length by 9–48 % and heart beats by 18–51 % was observed in hatchlings exposed to LC₁₀and LC₅₀concentrations at 96 h when compared to controls. The process of looping formation of heart at embryonic stage was greatly affected by the LC₅₀concentration of MCP. The neurotoxic potentiality of MCP was assessed by using a marker enzyme, acetylcholinesterase in both in vitro and in vivo experiments. MCP was found to be the most potent inhibitor of AChE in vitro with an IC₅₀value of 4.3 × 10⁻⁴ M. The whole-body AChE enzyme activity in vivo was significantly inhibited during the exposure tenure with the maximum inhibition of 62 % at 24 h.

After the scientific development of biotic ligand models (BLMs) in recent decades, these models are now considered suitable for implementation in regulatory risk assessment of metals in freshwater bodies. The BLM approach has been described in many peer-reviewed publications, and the original complex BLMs have been applied in prospective risk assessment reports for metals and metal compounds. BLMs are now also recommended as suitable concepts for the site-specific evaluation of monitoring data in the context of the European Water Framework Directive. However, the use is hampered by the data requirements for the original BLMs (about 10 water parameters). Recently, several user-friendly BLM-based bioavailability software tools for assessing the aquatic toxicity of relevant metals (mainly copper, nickel, and zinc) became available. These tools only need a basic set of commonly determined water parameters as input (i.e., pH, hardness, dissolved organic matter, and dissolved metal concentration). Such tools seem appropriate to foster the implementation of routine site-specific water quality assessments. This work aims to review the existing bioavailability-based regulatory approaches and the application of available BLM-based bioavailability tools for this purpose. Advantages and possible drawbacks of these tools (e.g., feasibility, boundaries of validity) are discussed, and recommendations for further implementation are given.

The Bureau Commun de Référence (BCR) sequential extraction scheme and micro-synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence (μ-SXRF) analysis were used to determine the Cu fractionation in a calcareous vineyard soil and a synthetic soil (mixture of seven constituents: calcite, birnessite, ferrihydrite, goethite, lignocellulosic residue, kaolinite, and quartz) at different Cu contamination rates (190, 1270, and 6350 mg kg⁻¹of Cu) and aging times (1, 30, 92, and 181 days). The Cu distribution in the spiked vineyard and synthetic soils was different from the original vineyard one and was influenced by the loading level. The newly added Cu was preferentially present in the acid soluble fraction. Aging of the contaminated vineyard and synthetic soils during 6 months led to the redistribution of Cu from the weakly bound acid soluble fraction to the strongly bound reducible one. The evolution with time could satisfactorily be simulated by the Elovich diffusion model for the synthetic soils. It was less significant as less marked in the contaminated vineyard soil than in the synthetic one, even though the trends observed in both were similar. This study supported the hypothesis that “simple” synthetic models could be used to approach the Cu fractionation and its evolution with time in vineyard soils.

An innovative approach has been recently proposed in order to link polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production with sludge minimization in municipal wastewater treatment, where (1) a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) is used for the simultaneous municipal wastewater treatment and the selection/enrichment of biomass with storage ability and (2) the acidogenic fermentation of the primary sludge is used to produce a stream rich in volatile fatty acids (VFAs) as the carbon source for the following PHA accumulation stage. The reliability of the proposed process has been evaluated at lab scale by using substrate synthetic mixtures for both stages, simulating a low-strength municipal wastewater and the effluent from primary sludge fermentation, respectively. Six SBR runs were performed under the same operating conditions, each time starting from a new activated sludge inoculum. In every SBR run, despite the low VFA content (10 % chemical oxygen demand, COD basis) of the substrate synthetic mixture, a stable feast–famine regime was established, ensuring the necessary selection/enrichment of the sludge and soluble COD removal to 89 %. A good process reproducibility was observed, as also confirmed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of the microbial community, which showed that a high similarity after SBR steady-state had been reached. The main variation factors of the storage properties among different runs were uncontrolled changes of settling properties which in turn caused variations of both sludge retention time and specific organic loading rate. In the following accumulation batch tests, the selected/enriched consortium was able to accumulate PHA with good rate (63 mg CODPHAg CODXₐ⁻¹ h⁻¹) and yield (0.23 CODPHACODΔS⁻¹) in spite that the feeding solution was different from the acclimation one. Even though the PHA production performance still requires optimization, the proposed process has a good potential especially if coupled to minimization of both primary sludge (by its use as the VFA source for the PHA accumulation, via previous fermentation) and excess secondary sludge (by its use as the biomass source for the PHA accumulation).

There is a compelling evidence in support of negative associations between essential trace and toxic elements in different types of cancer. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between carcinogenic (As, Cd, Ni) and anti-carcinogenic (Se, Zn) trace elements in scalp hair samples of different male cancerous patients (esophagus, lung, mouth, and urinary bladder). For comparative purposes, the scalp hair samples of healthy males of the same age group (ranged 35–65 years) as controls were analyzed. Both controls and patients have the same socioeconomic status, localities, dietary habits, and smoking locally made cigarette. The scalp hair samples were oxidized by 65 % nitric acid: 30 % hydrogen peroxide (2:1) ratio in microwave oven followed by atomic absorption spectrometry. The validity and accuracy of the methodology were checked using certified reference material of human hair BCR 397. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, and Ni were found to be significantly higher in scalp hair samples of patients having different cancers as compared to the controls, while reverse results were obtained in the case of Se and Zn levels (p < 0.01). The study revealed that the carcinogenic processes are significantly affecting the trace elements burden and mutual interaction of essential trace and toxic elements in the cancerous patients.

Ametryn is an herbicide used to control broadleaf and grass weeds and its acute and chronic toxicity is expected to be low. Since toxicological data on ametryn is scarce, the aim of this study was to evaluate rat reproductive toxicity. Thirty-six adult male Wistar rats (90 days) were divided into three groups: Co (control) and T1 and T2 exposed to 15 and 30 mg/kg/day of ametryn, respectively, for 56 days. Testicular analysis demonstrated that ametryn decreased sperm number per testis, daily sperm production, and Leydig cell number in both treated groups, although little perceptible morphological change has been observed in seminiferous tubule structure. Lipid peroxidation was higher in group T2, catalase activity decreased in T1 group, superoxide dismutase activity diminished, and a smaller number of sulphydryl groups of total proteins were verified in both exposed groups, suggesting oxidative stress. These results showed negative ametryn influence on the testes and can compromise animal reproductive performance and survival.