Increasing eutrophication and algal bloom events in the Yangtze River Three Gorges Reservoir, China, are widely discussed with regard to changed hydrodynamics and nutrient transport and distribution processes. Insights into water exchange and interaction processes between water masses related to large-scale water level fluctuations in the reservoir are crucial to understand water quality and eutrophication dynamics. Therefore, confluence zones of tributaries with the Yangtze River main stream are dedicated key interfaces. In this study, water quality data were recorded in situ and on-line in varying depths with the MINIBAT towed underwater multi-sensor system in the confluence zone of the Daning River and the Yangtze River close to Wushan City during 1 week in August 2011. Geostatistical evaluation of the water quality data was performed, and results were compared to phosphorus contents of selective water samples. The strongly rising water level throughout the measurement period caused Yangtze River water masses to flow upstream into the tributary and supply their higher nutrient and particulate loads into the tributary water body. Rapid algal growth and sedimentation occurred immediately when hydrodynamic conditions in the confluence zone became more serene again. Consequently, water from the Yangtze River main stream can play a key role in providing nutrients to the algal bloom stricken water bodies of its tributaries.

The present study investigates the concentration of Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn, and Cu in the paddy field soils collected from Tumpat, Kelantan. Soil samples were treated with sequential extraction to distinguish the anthropogenic and lithogenic origin of Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn, and Cu. ELFE and oxidizable-organic fractions were detected as the lowest accumulation of Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn, and Cu. Therefore, all the heavy metals examined were concentrated, particularly in resistant fraction, indicating that those heavy metals occurred and accumulated in an unavailable form. The utilization of agrochemical fertilizers and pesticides might not elevate the levels of heavy metals in the paddy field soils. In comparison, the enrichment factor and geoaccumulation index for Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn, and Cu suggest that these heavy metals have the potential to cause environmental risk, although they present abundance in resistant fraction. Therefore, a complete study should be conducted based on the paddy cycle, which in turn could provide a clear picture of heavy metals distribution in the paddy field soils.

Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is an excellent alternative for the partial replacement of fossil fuels in thermal and electric energy production. A new fuel type as biomass for energy utilisation includes ligneous plants with considerable heavy metal content. The combustion process must be controlled during the firing of significant quantities of contaminated biomass grown on brownfield lands. By implementing these measures, air pollution and further soil contamination caused by the disposal of the solid burning residue, the ash, can be prevented. For the test samples from ligneous plants grown on heavy metal-contaminated fields, an ore mine (already closed for 25 years) was chosen. With our focus on the determination of the heavy metal content, we have examined the composition of the soil, the biomass and the combustion by-products (ash, fly ash). Our results confirm that ash resulting from the combustion must be treated as toxic waste and its deposition must take place on hazardous waste disposal sites. Biomass of these characteristics can be burnt in special combustion facility that was equipped with means for the disposal of solid burning residues as well as air pollutants.

Vehicular air pollution is a mounting health issue of the modern age, particularly in urban populations of the developing nations. Auto-rickshaws are not considered eco-friendly as to their inefficient engines producing large amount of particulate matter (PM), thus posing significant environmental threat. The present study was conducted to ascertain the cytotoxic, phytotoxic, and mutagenic potential of PM from gasoline-powered two-stroke auto-rickshaws (TSA) and compressed natural gas-powered four-stroke auto-rickshaws (FSA). Based on the increased amount of aluminum quantified during proton-induced X-ray emission analysis of PM from TSA and FSA, different concentrations of aluminum sulfate were also tested to determine its eco-toxicological potential. The MTT assay demonstrated significant (p < 0.001) dose-dependent cytotoxic effects of different concentrations of TSA, FSA, and aluminum sulfate on BHK-21 cell line. LC50 of TSA, FSA, and aluminum sulfate was quantified at 16, 11, and 23.8 μg/ml, respectively, establishing PM from FSA, a highly cytotoxic material. In case of phytotoxicity screening using Zea mays, the results demonstrated that all three tested materials were equally phytotoxic at higher concentrations producing significant reduction (p < 0.001) in seed germination. Aluminum sulfate proved to be a highly phytotoxic agent even at its lowest concentration. Mutagenicity was assessed by fluctuation Salmonella reverse mutation assay adopting TA100 and TA98 mutant strains with (+S9) and without (-S9) metabolic activation. Despite the fact that different concentrations of PM from both sources, i.e., TSA and FSA were highly mutagenic (p < 0.001) even at lower concentrations, the mutagenic index was higher in TSA. Data advocate that all tested materials are equally ecotoxic, and if the existing trend of atmospheric pollution by auto-rickshaws is continued, airborne heavy metals will seriously affect the normal growth of local inhabitants and increased contamination of agricultural products, which will amplify the dietary intake of the toxic elements and could result in genetic mutation or long-term health implications.

The present study was undertaken to determine the toxic effect of a lethal concentration of six different commercially used textile dyes on the 46th stage of Xenopus laevis tadpoles. The tadpoles were exposed to Astrazon Red FBL, Astrazon Blue FGRL, Remazol Red RR, Remazol Turquoise Blue G-A, Cibacron Red FN-3G, and Cibacron Blue FN-R for 168 h in static test conditions, and thus, 168-h median lethal concentrations (LC₅₀s) of each dye were determined to be 0.35, 0.13, 112, 7, 359, and 15.8 mg/L, respectively. Also, to evaluate the sublethal effects of each dye, tadpoles were exposed to different concentrations of dyes (with respect to 168-h LC₅₀s) for 24 h. The alteration of selected enzyme activities was tested. For this aim, glutathione S-transferase (GST), carboxylesterase, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were assayed. After dye exposure, the GST induction or inhibition and LDH induction indicated some possible mechanisms of oxidative stress and deterioration in aerobic respiration processes induced by the tested dyes. Findings of the study suggest that selected biomarker enzymes are useful in understanding the toxic mechanisms of these dyes in X. laevis tadpoles as early warning indicators. Therefore, these selected biomarkers may evaluate the effect of environmental factors, such as textile dye effluents and other industrial pollutants, on amphibians in biomonitoring studies.

The purpose of this study is to compare the relative contribution of different mechanisms to the enhanced adsorption of Cu(II), Pb(II) and Cd(II) by variable charge soils due to incorporation of biochars derived from crop straws. The biochars were prepared from the straws of canola and peanut using an oxygen-limited pyrolysis method at 350 °C. The effect of biochars on adsorption and desorption of Cu(II), Pb(II) and Cd(II) by and from three variable charge soils from southern China was investigated with batch experiments. Based on the desorption of pre-adsorbed heavy metals, the electrostatic and non-electrostatic adsorptions were separated. EDTA was used to replace the heavy metals complexed with biochars and to evaluate the complexing ability of the biochars with the metals. The incorporation of biochars increased the adsorption of Cu(II), Pb(II) and Cd(II) by the soil; peanut straw char induced a greater increase in the adsorption of the three metals. The increased percentage of Cd(II) adsorption induced by biochars was much greater than that for the adsorption of Cu(II) and Pb(II). Cu(II) adsorption on three variable charge soils was enhanced by the two biochars mainly through a non-electrostatic mechanism, while both electrostatic and non-electrostatic mechanisms contributed to the enhanced adsorption of Pb(II) and Cd(II) due to the biochars. Peanut straw char had a greater specific adsorption capacity than canola straw char and thus induced more non-electrostatic adsorption of Cu(II), Pb(II) and Cd(II) by the soils than did the canola straw char. The complexing ability of the biochars with Cu(II) and Pb(II) was much stronger than that with Cd(II) and thus induced more specific adsorption of Cu(II) and Pb(II) by the soils than that of Cd(II). Biochars increased heavy metal adsorption by the variable charge soils through electrostatic and non-electrostatic mechanisms, and the relative contribution of the two mechanisms varied with metals and biochars.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Lactobacillus 12 and Lactobacillus rhamnosus as both cells and biomasses for the removal of dye from real textile dyeing wastewater. The removal experiments were conducted according to the Box–Behnken experimental design, and the regression equations for the removal of dye were determined by the Minitab 14 program. The optimum variables were found to be 10 g/ L biomass concentration for biomasses, 3 for initial pH of the solution, and 20 °C for temperature with an observed dye removal efficiency of about 60 and 80 % with L. 12 and L. rhamnosus biomasses, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy images also showed that the biomass characteristics studied were favored by the sorption of the dye from the textile industry wastewater. Consequently, these biomasses may be considered as good biosorbents due to their effective yields and the lower cost of the removal of dyes from the effluents of the textile dyeing house.

The aim of this study was to relate the results obtained by chemical methods, used to assess environmental (bio)availability, with the ecotoxic response and bioaccumulation of trace elements (TE) by the earthworm Eisenia fetida exposed to field-contaminated, metal-polluted soils from a sulphide mine. The extracting solution 0.5 M NH4CH3COO, 0.5 M CH3COOH and 0.02 M EDTA (pH 4.7), was able to predict environmental bioavailability of TE to E. fetida. However, the toxicological bioavailability could not be predicted from the results of the chemical extractions or from the bioaccumulation results: E. fetida reproduction was higher in soils where environmental bioavailability of TE and bioaccumulation values were also higher. In this study, the toxic response of the organism seemed to be more influenced by the overall nutritional status of the soil (e.g. pH, organic matter, plant nutrient availability and cation exchange capacity) than by its TE contamination. In the case of anthropogenic multi-contaminated sites, the different soil characteristics exert an important and confounding influence in the toxic response and the relationship between different bioavailable fractions cannot be easily established, emphasising the need to combine results from chemical methods with those from bioassays when evaluating the bioavailability of TE in these soils.

Improving knowledge on the apportionment of airborne particulate matter will be useful to handle and fulfill the legislation regarding this pollutant. The main aim of this work was to assess the influence of markers in the source apportionment of airborne PM10, in particular, whether the use of particle polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and ions provided similar results to the ones obtained using not only the mentioned markers but also gas phase PAH and trace elements. In order to reach this aim, two receptor models: UNMIX and positive matrix factorization were applied to two sets of data in Zaragoza city from airborne PM10, a previously reported campaign (2003–2004) (Callén et al. Chemosphere 76:1120-1129, 2009), where PAH associated to the gas and particle phases, ions and trace elements were used as markers and a long sampling campaign (2001–2009), where only PAH in the particle phase and ions were analyzed. For both campaigns, positive matrix factorization was able to explain a higher number of sources than the UNMIX model. Independently of the sampling campaign and the receptor model used, soil resuspension was the main PM10 source, especially in the warm period (21st March–21st September), where most of the PM10 exceedances were produced. Despite some of the markers of anthropogenic sources were different for both campaigns, common sources associated to different combustion sources (coal, light-oil, heavier-oil, biomass, and traffic) were found and PAH in particle phase and ions seemed to be good markers for the airborne PM10 apportionment.

Weather modification activities are performed mostly by cloud seeding. Some operational projects have been conducted for more than a half century and cover planetary scales. These activities have led to large amounts of seeding agents being deposited on the ground in precipitation. The main intent of this paper is to identify the spatial pattern of silver iodide deposits after hail suppression. The spatial pattern of silver iodide deposits is determined using the weather modification project measurements from seeding agent reports, two weather radars and 316 launching sites during a 5-year period. The estimated spatial distribution of the deposits is not uniform, with the maximum silver iodide amount located in the southern part of the study area (up to 140 μg m(-2)). Our results are comparable with the measurements performed by chemical analyses during other cloud seeding experiments. The maximum location coincides well with that of the maximum seeded hailstorm precipitation frequency. A new method for identifying the spatial pattern of wet-deposited material has been established. The location with the maximum amount is found. This method would be important as a means of placing samplers and monitoring at the representative sites because those are where most weather modification projects would be performed in the future.