In the face of the water scarcity problem, the use of treated wastewater emerges as a viable alternative to meet the demand of the agricultural sector, the main consumer of available water in the world. Thus, the development of technologies to provide safe wastewater reuse is a priority. We evaluated the reduction rate of the fecal indicator Escherichia coli naturally present in effluent from an urban wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) submitted to UV-LED (Ultraviolet-Light-Emitting Diodes) radiation, emitting UVA (365 and 405 nm) or UVC (255 and 280 nm), used alone or coupled. The 280-nm wavelength seems to be crucial to the success of the disinfection systems, as all the programs that used this wavelength reached a 4-log reduction of E. coli.

The persistence of pathogenic Agrobacterium strains as soil-associated saprophytes may cause an inconsistency in the efficacy of the biocontrol inoculants under field condition. The study of the interaction occurring in the rhizosphere between the beneficial and the pathogenic microbes is thus interesting for the development of effective biopesticides for the management of crown gall disease. However, very little is still known about the influence of these complex interactions on the biocontrol determinants of beneficial bacteria, especially Bacillus strains. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the soil borne pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 on root colonization and lipopeptide production by Bacillus velezensis strain 32a during interaction with tomato plants. Results show that the presence of A. tumefaciens C58 positively impacted the root colonization level of the Bacillus strain. However, negative impact on surfactin production was observed in Agrobacterium-treated seedling, compared with control. Further investigation suggests that these modulations are due to a modified tomato root exudate composition during the tripartite interaction. Thus, this work contributes to enhance the knowledge on the impact of interspecies interaction on the ecological fitness of Bacillus cells living in the rhizosphere.

In the context of the water environmental protection and local economic sustainable growth, it is of great importance to conduct a comprehensive water quality assessment in Chaohu Lake basin. In this study, dissolved oxygen (DO), permanganate index (CODMₙ), 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) were investigated monthly at 24 sampling sites in Chaohu Lake basin during 2015 to 2017. Five methods were used to evaluate water quality and identify dominant pollutants. Results showed that the dominant pollutants in Chaohu Lake were TN (4.17~11.61 mg L⁻¹) and TP (0.27~0.75 mg L⁻¹). The upstream of Chaohu Lake was influenced by Nanfei River, Shiwuli River, and Paihe River, and water quality of the upstream (eutrophic) was worse than that of the downstream (mesotrophic) part of Chaohu Lake. Comprehensive Water Quality Identification Index Method (CWQII) can better assess the water quality compared with the other methods by providing qualitative and quantitative analysis. The index values assessed by CWQII method for Nanfei River, Shiwuli River, and Paihe River were 5.819, 5.986, and 5.141, respectively, and water quality were all assessed as grade V. Overall, water quality of Chaohu Lake has been slightly improved during 2015~2017, but water quality of western inflowing rivers was still heavily polluted. These findings provide valuable information and guidance for water pollution control and water resource management in Chaohu Lake basin. Several feasible measures are proposed.

Copper (Cu) is an abundant essential micronutrient element in various rocks and minerals and is required for a variety of metabolic processes in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. However, excess Cu can disturb normal development by adversely affecting biochemical reactions and physiological processes in plants. The present study was conducted to explore the potential of gibberellic acid (GA₃) on fibrous jute (Corchorus capsularis L.) seedlings grown on Cu mining soil obtained from Hubei Province China. Exogenous application of GA₃ (10, 50, and 100 mg/L) on 60-day-old seedlings of C. capsularis which was able to grow in highly Cu-contaminated soil (2221 mg/kg) to study different morphological, physiological, and Cu uptake and accumulation in different parts of C. capsularis seedlings. According to the results, increasing concentration of GA₃ (more likely 100 mg/L) alleviates Cu toxicity in C. capsularis seedlings by increasing plant growth, biomass, photosynthetic pigments, and gaseous exchange attributes. The results also showed that exogenous application of GA₃ reduced oxidative stress in C. capsularis seedlings by the generation of extra reactive oxygen species (ROS). The reduction in oxidative stress in C. capsularis seedlings is because that plant has strong enzymatic antioxidants [superoxidase dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and catalase (CAT)], which ultimately increased their activities to overcome oxidative damage in the cells/tissues. In addition to the plant growth, biomass, and photosynthesis, foliar application of GA₃ also helps to increase metal (Cu) concentration in different parts of the plants when compared to 0 mg/L of application of GA₃. From these findings, we can conclude that foliar application of GA₃ plays a promising role in reducing ROS generation in the plant cells/tissues and increased phytoextraction of Cu in different plant parts. However, more investigation is needed on field experiments to find a combination of GA₃ with a very higher concentration of Cu using fibrous C. capsularis.

The present study examined the accumulation of metal on Sepiella inermis from the Mudasalodai Landing Center, from southeast coastal region of India. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine metals including aluminium, boron, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, magnesium, nickel, lead and zinc. The results showed that metal concentration in S. inermis detected in the head, arm, mantle, eye, ink, liver and nidamental gland with higher concentration of magnesium up to 992.78 mg/kg, and tentacle showed maximum concentration of aluminium 306.72 mg/kg. Further, copper found in low concentration ranges from 0.04 to 0.55 mg/kg in different parts of S. inermis. Heavy metal like cadmium detected high in tentacle with 0.24 mg/kg, and the manganese present in eye was 0.55 mg/kg. However, no accumulation of nickel was found in the tentacle part.

Two different analytical methods for the determination of polycyclic musk fragrances (PMFs) in wastewater and in activated sludge were developed. PMFs in filtered water samples were determined by gas chromatography coupled with a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. Activated sludge samples were extracted using an ultrasonic bath and analysed using a GC-Ion trap. The developed methods respected a linear model (R² > 0.995). Detection limits of selected compounds (Celestolide, Galaxolide, Galaxolidone, Phantolide and Tonalide) varied from 1.7 to 80 ng L⁻¹ for water and from 0.1 ng g⁻¹ to 210 ng g⁻¹ for activated sludge considering laboratory contamination for each PMF. Recovery studies were performed on spiked water samples and, for sludges, on procedural blanks, showing recoveries above 70% for all the considered compounds, while recovery of the internal standard was always above limit of acceptance (30%). Proposed methods were used to determine PMFs concentrations in wastewaters and activated sludges of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) located in Northern Italy. Concentrations in the range of μg L⁻¹ of Galaxolide and of its metabolite Galaxolidone were detected even in the WWTP effluent. Biotransformation of Galaxolide into Galaxolidone occurred during biological treatment with the consequent release of this compound through WWTP effluents. In activated sludges, concentrations of all PMFs except Galaxolidone were one order of magnitude higher than wastewaters, as expected according to their physicochemical properties. Present wastewater treatment technologies were confirmed to not be efficient in removing PMFs from influent wastewaters since with only ≃ 30% of Celestolide and Tonalide were removed.

As a global problem, climate warming has received widespread attention recently. With trade development and labor division deepening, there exist large differences in carbon emission intensity (CEI) embodied in different trade patterns. Assessing environmental costs of different trade patterns is the core issue for policy makers. We decompose the overall CEI embodied in trade into CEI embodied in final goods trade, domestic trade, traditional intermediate trade, and global value chain trade. Using global multi-region input-output table provided by the WIOD database, we calculate the CEI embodied in different trade patterns during 1995–2014. Further, we analyze the influencing factors of CEI embodied in different trade patterns. We find that CEI embodied in domestic trade is lower than that of international trade. All kinds of embodied CEI in developing countries are higher than that in developed countries. Furthermore, the driving factors of the overall embodied CEI, including domestic trade and international trade, are population, PGDP, energy intensity, and trade. The expansion of industrialization can effectively reduce the CEI embodied in trade of developing countries. The increase of PGDP and industrialization can effectively reduce the CEI embodied in trade related to global value chain and traditional intermediate trade, while only the increase of PGDP can effectively reduce the CEI embodied in domestic trade and final goods trade. Population can reduce the embodied CEI in trade related to global value chain and traditional intermediate trade of developed countries. Economic development can almost promote the reduction of the CEI embodied in all trade patterns. Although industrialization has insignificant impact on the CEI embodied in final goods trade of the developed countries, it can reduce such CEI of developing countries.

As the demand for metal minerals grows, the number of mine tailings increases dramatically worldwide. Toxic heavy metals (HMs) in tailings tend to migrate into the environment and cause serious damage to the surroundings. Possible eco-friendly solutions for the in situ stabilization of HMs in tailing ponds are required to reduce their mobility. Leaching tests were performed with attapulgite, zeolite, and bentonite to determine which stabilizer is more efficient. As a result, attapulgite has more significant effect with certain dose on metal mine tailings than zeolite or bentonite, especially in a strongly acidic environment. In addition, an in situ stabilization experiment was performed by adding a stabilizer to a lead-zinc mine tailing pond with high-pressure rotary jet technology. The field experiment indicated that the concentrations of HMs in the leachate substantially decreased (30.5% for Cr, 43.1% for Cu, 87.8% for Zn, 82.9% for Cd, and 42.4% for Pb) after the HMs were stabilized by high-pressure rotary jet technology. A set of parameters for the rotary jet process was obtained when the in situ stabilization experiment was carried out.

With its major influences on economic growth, energy consumption, and environmental quality, the iron and steel (IS) industry plays an important role in achieving green growth of the national economy. It is also the main air pollutant emitter compared with other industries. Therefore, this study first investigates the influencing factors of air pollutant emissions of the IS industry from dimensions of environmental regulation effect, pollutant generation intensity effect, energy structure effect, technological progress effect, and scale effect using the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method. Additionally, decoupling effort values are further calculated to obtain the efforts made in different historical stages to achieve decoupling between the growth of the IS industry and its pollutant emissions. Three main conclusions can be summarized based on the empirical analysis of China’s IS industry from 2005 to 2015. First, environmental regulation plays a decisive role in mitigating air pollution in the IS industry. Second, environmental regulation and technological progress both exert inhibitory effects on air pollutant emissions, whereas the intensity effect of pollutant generation and scale effect promote emissions to some extent. The role of energy structural effect is unstable, yet the cumulative effect analysis shows that the effect exerts greater impacts on emission reduction during the recent period. Third, decoupling efforts of the industry gradually changed from weak to strong. In specific, the effects of environmental regulation and technological progress both promote decoupling. Conclusions are made, and suggestions are highlighted based on the research findings.