Occurrence,source apportionment,and carcinogenic risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban road dusts in Shanghai

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), as a class of important environmental pollutants, have received considerable concern due to their widespread...     

Characteristics and chemical speciation of waste copper slag

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Waste copper slag contains abundant valuable metal element Fe, and residual elements such as Cu, As, Pb, Zn, and Mo. Simply stockpiling or landfilling...     

Explanation of heavy metal pollution in coal mines of china from the perspective of coal gangue geochemical characteristics

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In the process of coal gangue surface accumulation and underground filling disposal, the heavy metals contained in coal gangue will inevitably...     

三门峡水库水体中不同形态汞的分布特征

为了解三门峡水库水体中不同形态汞的分布特征,在丰水期和枯水期对三门峡水库进行采样,分别采用冷原子荧光光谱法(CVAFS)和蒸馏-乙基化衍生-气相色谱-冷原子荧光法(GC-CVAFS)测定水样中总汞、总甲基汞、溶解态总汞和溶解态甲基汞的浓度.结果表明,三门峡水库水体中总汞、溶解态汞和颗粒态汞浓度范围分别为1.65~9.65、0.80~3.16和0.70~7.81 ng·L~(-1),符合国家地表水环境质量标准(GB 3838-2002)一类水汞浓度标准限值;总甲基汞、溶解态甲基汞和颗粒态甲基汞浓度分别为0.05~0.36、0.02~0.14和ND~0.26 ng·L~(-1).三门峡水库水体总汞和甲基汞在季节和空间分布上没有呈现出明显的变化规律.总汞和甲基汞与未受污染的天然水体差别不大,水库未受到明显的汞污染.丰、枯水期沉积物中总汞浓度分别为(92.96±10.65)ng·g~(-1)和(80.06±19.14)ng·g~(-1),甲基汞浓度分别为(0.33±0.14)ng·g~(-1)和(0.50±0.19)ng·g~(-1).较低的甲基汞浓度说明在三门峡水库汞的迁移转化过程中,甲基化作用可能并非主要的过程,这可能与水体底层溶解氧浓度较高以及沉积物中有机质浓度较低有关.     

制革废水和印染废水的综合毒性评估及鉴别

研究采用成组生物毒性试验(发光菌急性毒性、斑马鱼幼鱼急性毒性,斑马鱼胚胎发育毒性和小球藻急性毒性),结合理化指标,通过毒性单位、平均毒性(average toxicity,Av Tx)、毒性指数(toxic print,Tx Pr)、最敏感的测试(most sensitive test,MST)和潜在毒性效应指数(potential ecotoxic effects probe,PEEP)对不同工艺阶段印染及制革废水进行毒性削减评估.结果表明PEEP能兼顾废水排放量与毒性效应,更为客观地表征了废水综合毒性,PEEP评价结果显示制革废水和印染废水的毒性削减率分别达到36.8%和23.2%.最后,以发光菌作为受试生物,采用毒性鉴别评估(toxicity identification evaluation,TIE)技术,对印染废水进行毒性鉴别.结果表明,印染废水中主要的致毒物质为非极性有机污染,其次为可滤性化合物,然后是重金属、氧化性物质以及挥发性物质.     

Re-evaluation of thyroid hormone signaling antagonism of tetrabromobisphenol A for validating the T3-induced Xenopus metamorphosis assay

We developed the T3-induced Xenopus metamorphosis assay, which is supposed to be able to sensitively detect thyroid hormone(TH) signaling disruption of chemicals. The present study aimed to validate the T3-induced Xenopus metamorphosis assay by re-evaluating the TH signaling antagonism of tetrabromobisphenol A(TBBPA), a known TH signaling disruptor. According to the assay we developed, Xenopus tadpoles at stage 52 were exposed to 10–500 nmol/L TBBPA in the presence of 1 nmol/L T3. After 96 hr of exposure, TBBPA in the range of 10–500 nmol/L was found to significantly inhibit T3-induced morphological changes of Xenopus tadpoles in a concentration-dependent manner in term of body weight and four morphological endpoints including head area(HA), mouth width(MW), unilateral brain width/brain length(ULBW/BL), and hind-limb length/snout-vent length(HLL/SVL).The results show that these endpoints we developed are sensitive for characterizing the antagonistic effects of TBBPA on T3-induced metamorphosis. Following a 24-hr exposure,we found that TBBPA antagonized expression of T3-induced TH-response genes in the tail,which is consistent with previous findings in the intestine. We propose that the tail can be used as an alternative tissue to the intestine for examining molecular endpoints for evaluating TH signaling disruption. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the T3-induced Xenopus metamorphosis assay we developed is an ideal in vivo assay for detecting TH signaling disruption.     

Pseudomonas sp. ZXY-1, a newly isolated and highly efficient atrazine-degrading bacterium, and optimization of biodegradation using response surface methodology

Atrazine, a widely used herbicide, is increasing the agricultural production effectively, while also causing great environmental concern. Efficient atrazine-degrading bacterium is necessary to removal atrazine rapidly to keep a safe environment. In the present study, a new atrazine-degrading strain ZXY-1, identified as Pseudomonas, was isolated. This new isolated strain has a strong ability to biodegrade atrazine with a high efficiency of 9.09 mg/L/hr.Temperature, p H, inoculum size and initial atrazine concentration were examined to further optimize the degradation of atrazine, and the synthetic effect of these factors were investigated by the response surface methodology. With a high quadratic polynomial mathematical model(R~2= 0.9821) being obtained, the highest biodegradation efficiency of 19.03 mg/L/hr was reached compared to previous reports under the optimal conditions(30.71°C, pH 7.14, 4.23%(V/V) inoculum size and 157.1 mg/L initial atrazine concentration).Overall, this study provided an efficient bacterium and approach that could be potentially useful for the bioremediation of wastewater containing atrazine.     

Shifts in microbial community structure and diversity in a MBR combined with worm reactors treating synthetic wastewater

The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and NH₃-N removal, membrane fouling, sludge characteristics and microbial community structure in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) coupled with worm reactors (SSBWR) were evaluated for 210 days. The obtained results were compared to those from a conventional MBR (C-MBR) operated in parallel. The results indicated that the combined MBR (S-MBR) achieved higher COD and NH₃-N removal efficiency, slower increase in membrane fouling, better sludge settleability and higher activities of the related enzymes in the activated sludge. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis was used to analyze the microbial community structures in the C-MBR and the S-MBR. The microbial community structure in the S-MBR was more diverse than that in the C-MBR. Additionally, the slow-growing microbes such as Saprospiraceae, Actinomyces, Frankia, Clostridium, Comamonas, Pseudomonas, Dechloromonas and Flavobacterium were enriched in the S-MBR, further accounting for the sludge reduction, membrane fouling alleviation and wastewater treatment.     

Performance and microbial community of a membrane bioreactor system——Treating wastewater from ethanol fermentation of food waste

In this study, a lab-scale biological anaerobic/anaerobic/anoxic/membrane bioreactor(A_-~3MBR) was designed to treat wastewater from the ethanol fermentation of food waste,a promising way for the disposal of food waste and reclamation of resources. The 454 pyrosequencing technique was used to investigate the composition of the microbial community in the treatment system. The system yielded a stable effluent concentration of chemical oxygen demand(202 ± 23 mg/L), total nitrogen(62.1 ± 7.1 mg/L), ammonia(0.3 ±0.13 mg/L) and total phosphorus(8.3 ± 0.9 mg/L), and the reactors played different roles in specific pollutant removal. The exploration of the microbial community in the system revealed that:(1) the microbial diversity of anaerobic reactors A_1 and A_2, in which organic pollutants were massively degraded, was much higher than that in anoxic A_3 and aerobic MBR;(2) although the community composition in each reactor was quite different, bacteria assigned to the classes Clostridia, Bacteroidia, and Synergistia were important and common microorganisms for organic pollutant degradation in the anaerobic units, and bacteria from Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria were the dominant microbial population in A_3 and MBR;(3) the taxon identification indicated that Arcobacter in the anaerobic reactors and Thauera in the anoxic reactor were two representative genera in the biological process. Our results proved that the biological A_-~3MBR process is an alternative technique for treating wastewater from food waste.     

Microbial reduction of uranium (VI) by Bacillus sp. dwc-2: A macroscopic and spectroscopic study

The microbial reduction of U(VI) by Bacillus sp. dwc-2, isolated from soil in Southwest China, was explored using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES). Our studies indicated that approximately 16.0% of U(VI) at an initial concentration of 100 mg/L uranium nitrate could be reduced by Bacillus sp. dwc-2 at pH 8.2 under anaerobic conditions at room temperature. Additionally, natural organic matter (NOM) played an important role in enhancing the bioreduction of U(VI) by Bacillus sp. dwc-2. XPS results demonstrated that the uranium presented mixed valence states (U(VI) and U(IV)) after bioreduction, which was subsequently confirmed by XANES. Furthermore, the TEM and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) analysis suggested that the reduced uranium was bioaccumulated mainly within the cell and as a crystalline structure on the cell wall. These observations implied that the reduction of uranium may have a significant effect on its fate in the soil environment in which these bacterial strains occur.