Studies on seawater self-purification capacity to heavy metals in the Haikou Bay

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Bioremediation in Water Environment: Controlled Electro-Stimulation of Organic Matter Self-Purification in Aquatic Environments

This review describes a new means of control and stimulation of microorganisms involved in the bioremediation of sediments and waterlogged soils. This emerging technology is derived from sedimentary microbial fuel cells, and consists in ensuring aerobic respiration of aerobic microbial populations in anaerobic conditions by means of a fixed potential anode in order to evacuate the electrons coming from the microbial respiratory chains. This review describes the conceptual basis of the electro-bioremediation, the material devices used (electrode set-ups and spacing), and finally studies the various devices published since the bench tests until the scarce in-field implementations.

Potential Impact of Wash Bay Effluent on the Water Quality of a Subtropical River

Washbay effluents have received scant attention as a potential source of water pollution globally. This study is the first to investigate the potential impact of the total wash bay effluent content released into river water in Africa. We investigated the potential ramifications of wash bay effluxent released off Charter Estates, Chimanimani in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe on the water quality of the receiving subtropical Nyahode River by measuring selected water limnochemical aspects which included biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), oil and grease, pH, sulphates, phosphates, iron, total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and electrical conductivity (EC) once every 3 months from October 2011 to July 2012. The obtained mean levels of the limnochemical parameters from the Nyahode River were compared to the local Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and international World Health Organisation (WHO) effluent standards. Our results show that the control point and the off effluent discharge source downstream points in the Nyahode River had water quality parameters that were below the local EMA and WHO water quality threshold values. Cluster analysis showed a strong linkage in the values of water quality parameters measured at sampling sites 3 and 4 which were below the discharge point. Wash bay effluent released from the Charter Estate has an impact on some aspects of the water in the Nyahode River but the river has a functional self-purification capacity. Onsite industrial purification of wash bay effluent before discharge reduces its potential deleterious impact on water quality, river habitat integrity and aquatic biodiversity.

Risk Modelling of Organic Pollution in Lake Sediments

A risk situation of organic pollutants accumulation in the sediments of the dams from Cascade “Middle Iskar” (NW Bulgaria) is simulated in the present study. The aim is risk modelling of organic pollution in lake sediments and on base of the investigated key chemical and enzymological parameters to risk assessment. A model process in lab scale with addition of whey as a source of organic pollutants was simulated. Two situations near to real conditions were studied: 1) at a decreased concentration of organic pollutants (chemical oxygen demand was 0.265 gO2.kg-1) in the case of discharge of sediments downstream of the river (control situation);2) at an accumulation of organic pollutants (chemical oxygen demand was 1.463 gO2.kg-1) in the sediments (risk event). The dynamics of chemical oxygen demand (COD), concentration of proteins and lactose as well as of the key enzymological indicators (phosphatase activity index—PAI, anaerobic dehydrogenase activity, protease and ?-galactosidase activities) were investigated. The data from Risk Assessment showed that there is a hazard from higher protein concentration at the end of the process in comparison with the control situation. The risk about COD and lactose concentration during the risk modelling was acceptable. The obtained results showed that the PAI can be used as an indicator for early warning of the organic pollution with protein nature.

Green Charm from Green Design

The way of making people like to use the product by emotional and aesthetic design and making product with charm is illustrated. Examples show that to solve the green charm problem and protect environment only by people＇s responsibility and duty is far from enough. The most important is to attract people loving the green product from the bottom of their heart and to realize the harmonious union of the nature and human beings.

To the Question of the Assessment of Ecological Comfort of the Climate

The article is devoted to the discussion of the advantages of assessing the environmental comfort of the climate,based on the natural features of the climate and the bioclimatic conditions of the territory.The study assessed the ecological comfort of the climate in the city of Taganrog on the basis of the developed original sequence of performing three stages of assessing the totality of bioclimatic indicators with the final calculation of the values of the integral indicator of the bioclimatic comfort of the climate.The results of the assessment showed,according to the average long-term climatic data,the presence of sub-comfortable climates with a tendency to transition to comfortable climate conditions in the warm period of the year.The cold season was distinguished by uncomfortable conditions according to long-term average climatic data.Modeling calculations of the possible risk to the health of city residents in the presence of concentrations of suspended solids in the surface air layer,together with carbon monoxide,exceeding the maximum one-time values by more than 7 times,showed that the development of possible resorptive or carcinogenic effects in these circumstances will occur in 1/3 the population of the city.The prospects for the assessment of the ecological comfort of the climate,which allow in the future to adequately calculate the magnitude of environmental risks to public health caused by pollution of the surface air layer,are shown.

The macroscopic mechanisms and associated atmospheric precursor environmental capacities that lead to secondary fine particle pollution

This paper establishes the kinetic equations in atmospheric chemistry that describe the macroscopic mechanisms of secondary fine particle pollution generated by precursors during atmospheric self-purification.The dynamic and static solutions of these equations can be applied to calculate quantitative relationships between the concentration ratio of precursors and secondary fine particles as well as the physical clearance power of the atmosphere,chemical reaction rate,and the scale of a contaminated area.The dynamic solution presented here therefore corresponds with a theoretical formula for calculating the overall rate constant for the oxidation reaction of reducing pollutants in the actual atmosphere based on their local concentrations and meteorological monitoring data.In addition,the static solution presented in this paper reveals the functional relationship between the concentration of secondary fine particles and precursor emission rate as well as atmospheric self-purification capacity.This result can be applied to determine the atmospheric environmental capacity of a precursor.Hourly records collected over the last 40 years from 378 weather stations in China's Mainland as well as the spatiotemporal distribution sequence of overall oxidation reaction rates from precursors show that when the reference concentration limit of secondary fine particles is100μmol m-3,the atmospheric environmental capacity of total precursors canbe calculated as 24890×1010 mol yr-1.Thus,when the annual average concentration limit of given fine particles is 35μg m-3 and the ratio of sulfate and nitrate to 30%and 20%of the total amount of fine particles,the capacities of SO2,NOx and NH3 are 1255,1344,and 832(1010g yr-1),respectively.The clearance density of precursors for different return periods across China's Mainland under above conditions are also provided in this study.

Investigation of environmental and land use impacts in forested permafrost headwaters of the Selenga-Baikal river system,Mongolia-Effects on discharge,water quality and macroinvertebrate diversity

Headwater streams play a major role for provision of ecosystem services,e.g.drinking water.We investigated a high-altitude headwater catchment of the Kharaa River(including 411st-order rivers)to understand the impact of land cover(especially forest cover),environment and human usage on runoff,chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate fauna in a river basin under discontinuous permafrost conditions in an arid,sparsely populated region of Mongolia.To verify our hypotheses that different landuses and environmental impacts in permafrost headwaters influence water quality,we investigated 105 sampling sites,37 of them at intermittent stream sections without water flow.Discharge was positively impacted by land cover types steppe,grassland and forest and negatively by shrubland,forest burnt by wild fires(indicating a reduction of permafrost)and slope.Water quality was affected by altitude,longitude and latitude,shrub growth and water temperature.Shannon diversity of macroinvertebrates was driven by water temperature,iron content of the water,flow velocity,and subbasin size(adjusted R^(2)=0.54).Sample plots clustered in three groups that differed in water chemistry,macroinvertebrate diversity,species composition and bio-indicators.Our study confirms that steppes and grasslands have a higher contribution to runoff than forests,forest cover has a positive impact on water quality,and diversity of macroinvertebrates is higher in sites with less nutrients and pollutants.The excellent ecological status of the upper reaches of the Kharaa is severely threatened by forest fires and human-induced climate change and urgently needs to be conserved.