The evaluation of ecology-based tourism potential in coastal villages in accordance with landscape values and user demands: the Bursa-Mudanya-Kumyaka case

Ecology-based tourism, which is integrated with nature, developed in environmentally conscious areas and enriched by different cultures, has become more important in the direction of extending tourism throughout the year. While the landscape values of the area are important functions for tourism activities to be carried out in natural characteristics, the preferences of the users are also important. Ecology-based tourism, which develops in connection with the concepts of intacteness, the protection-use balance and sustainability, and the demands and expectations of tourists, constitute the basis of our study. For this purpose, the study was carried out in Kumyaka, a small coastal neighborhood (village) of the county of Mudanya in the province Bursa, Turkey with important natural, historical and cultural assets. Fieldwork, field analysis, literature search, interviews with tourists coming to the field, interviews with the day trippers and survey work were conducted in the study. While evaluating the ecology-based tourism potential of the area, the demands and expectations of tourists have been taken into account together with the available area data. According to the results of the survey, tourists are mostly interested in having the most scenic value and quietness when choosing the area. The types of tourism that tourists most wanted to experience in the field were 42.38% culture tourism and 32.32% nature tourism. As a result of tourists’ demands and expectations, the tourism activities to be carried out in accordance with the possibilities of the area were examined and ecology based planning proposals and holistic planning approaches were developed.     

Biosorption properties of zinc(II) from aqueous solutions by Pseudevernia furfuracea (L.) Zopf

Pseudevernia furfuracea (L.) Zopf biosorption efficiency for zinc(II) was determined. The biosorption efficiency of Zn(II) onto P. furfuracea was significantly affected by the parameters of pH, biomass concentration, stirring speed, contact time, and temperature. The maximum biosorption efficiency of P. furfuracea was 92% at 10 mg/L Zn(II), for 5 g/L lichen biomass dosage. The biosorption of Zn(II) ions onto biomass was better described by the Langmuir model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic. The obtained thermodynamic parameters from biosorption of Zn(II) ions onto biomass were feasible, exothermic, and spontaneous. The different desorbents were used to perform the desorption studies for Zn(II)-loaded biomass. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to determine the participating functional groups of P. furfuracea biomass in Zn (II) biosorption. The broad and strong bands at 3292–3304 cm^?1 were due to bound hydroxyl (–OH) or amine (–NH) groups. The effective desorptions were obtained up to 96% with HNO₃. P. furfuracea is an encouraging biosorbent for Zn(II) ions, with high metal biosorption and desorption capacities, availability, and low cost. It was believed that by using this new method in which biomass is used as a sorbent, the toxic pollutants could be selectively removed from aqueous solutions to desired low levels. The remarkable properties of lichens in the transformation and detoxification of organic and inorganic pollutants are well known, and many processes have received attention in the general area of environmental biotechnology and microbiology.

Implications:The remarkable properties of lichens in the biosorption capacity of organic and inorganic pollutants are well known, and many processes have received attention in the general area of environmental biotechnology and microbiology.     

Evaluation of modeling as a tool to determine the potential impacts related to drilling wastes in the Brazilian offshore

Numerical models that predict the fate of drilling discharges at sea constitute a valuable tool for both the oil industry and regulatory agencies. In order to provide reliable estimates, models must be validated through the comparison of predictions with field or laboratory observations. In this paper, we used the Offshore Operators Committee Model to simulate the discharges from two wells drilled at Campos Basin, offshore SE Brazil, and compared the results with field observations obtained 3 months after drilling. The comparison showed that the model provided reasonable predictions, considering that data about currents were reconstructed and theoretical data were used to characterize the classes of solids. The model proved to be a valuable tool to determine the degree of potential impact associated to drilling activities. However, since the accuracy of the model is directly dependent on the quality of input data, different possible scenarios should be considered when used for forecast modeling.     

Bioenergy production from diluted poultry manure and microbial consortium inside Anaerobic Sludge Bed Reactor at sub-mesophilic conditions

In this study, anaerobic treatability of diluted chicken manure (with an influent feed ratio of 1 kg of fresh chicken manure to 6 L of tap water) was investigated in a lab-scale anaerobic sludge bed (ASB) reactor inoculated with granular seed sludge. The ASB reactor was operated at ambient temperature (17–25°C) in order to avoid the need of external heating up to higher operating temperatures (e.g., up to 35°C for mesophilic digestion). Since heat requirement for raising the temperature of incoming feed for digestion is eliminated, energy recovery from anaerobic treatment of chicken manure could be realized with less operating costs. Average biogas production rates were calculated ca. 210 and 242 L per kg of organic matter removed from the ASB reactor at average hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 13 and 8.6 days, respectively. Moreover, average chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of ca. 89% was observed with suspended solids removal more than 97% from the effluent of the ASB reactor. Influent ammonia, on the other hand, did not indicate any free ammonia inhibition due to dilution of the raw manure while pH and alkalinity results showed stability during the study. Microbial quantification results indicated that as the number of bacterial community decreased, the amount of Archaea increased through the effective digestion volume of the ASB reactor. Moreover, the number of methanogens displayed an uptrend like archaeal community and a strong correlation (?0.645) was found between methanogenic community and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration especially acetate.     

Heavy metal contents of organically produced, harvested, and dried fruit samples from Kayseri, Turkey

Organically produced, harvested, and dried fruit samples bought at organic markets in Kayseri, Turkey have been analyzed for their trace element contents. In the determinations, flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS) was used. This pilot study is the first to be performed for organically produced, harvested, and dried fruit samples from Kayseri, Turkey. The copper, iron, manganese, and zinc concentrations were found to be 1.6–15.5, 10.3–144, 23.0–211, and 23.3–91.6 μg/g, respectively. The cobalt, lead, cadmium, chromium, and nickel concentrations in all analyzed organic fruit samples were below the quantification limits of FAAS. SRM 1570A spinach leaves and SRM 1515 apple leaves were used to check the accuracy of the procedure. The results for the dried fruit samples found in this work were compared with the values from some studies from the world. The results found in the presented work may also be useful for future studies about organically produced, harvested, and dried fruit samples.     

A new multimodal and asymmetric bivariate circular distribution

Multimodal and asymmetric bivariate circular data arise in several different disciplines and fitting appropriate distribution plays an important role in the analysis of such data. In this paper, we propose a new bivariate circular distribution which can be used to model both asymmetric and multimodal bivariate circular data simultaneously. In fact the proposed density covers unimodality as well as multimodality, symmetry as well as asymmetry of circular bivariate data. A number of properties of the proposed density are presented. A Bayesian approach with MCMC scheme is employed for statistical inference. Three real datasets and a simulation study are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed model in comparison with alternative models such as finite mixture Cosine model.     

The mechanism of enhanced biological phosphorus removal washout and temperature relationships.

In this study, the combined effects of temperature and solids retention time (SRT) on enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) performance and the mechanism of EBPR washout were investigated. Two pilot-scale University of Cape Town (South Africa) systems fed with synthetic wastewater were operated at 5 and 10 degrees C. The results showed that the phosphorus removal performance was optimum at total SRT ranges of 16 to 24 days and 12 to 17 days for 5 and 10 degrees C, respectively, and steady-state phosphorus removal was greater at the lower temperature. Higher SRT values of up to 32 days at 5 degrees C and 25 days at 10 degrees C slightly reduced EBPR performance as a result of increased extent of endogenous respiration, which consumed internally stored glycogen, leaving less reducing power for poly-hydroxy alkanoate (PHA) formation in anaerobic stages. The phosphorus-accumulating organism (PAO) washout SRTs of the systems were determined as 3.5 days at 5 degrees C and 1.8 days at 10 degrees C, considerably less than the washout SRTs of nitrifiers. Polyphosphorus, the main energy reserve of the EBPR bacterial consortium, was not completely depleted, even at washout points. The inability of EBPR biomass to use glycogen to generate reducing power for PHA formation was the major reason for washout. The results not only suggest that glycogen mechanism is the most rate-limiting step in EBPR systems, but also that it is an integral part of EBPR biochemistry, as proposed originally by Mino et al. (1987), and later others (Pereira et al., 1996, Erdal et al., 2002; Erdal, Z. K., 2002). The aerobic washout SRT values (2.1 and 1.2 days for 5 and 10 degrees C, respectively) of this study did not fit the linear line for PAO washout developed by Mamais and Jenkins (1992). Perhaps this was because the feeds used during this study were chemical-oxygen-demand-limited (acetate-based synthetic feed), whereas the feeds used for their study were phosphorus-limited (external acetate added to domestic wastewater), resulting in different ratios of PAOs and nonPAOs in the biomass.     

Crystalline phase analysis and phosphorus availability after thermochemical treatment of sewage sludge ash with sodium and potassium sulfates for fertilizer production

Phosphorus rich sewage sludge ash is a promising source to produce phosphorus recycling fertilizer. However, the low plant availability of phosphorus in these ashes makes a treatment necessary. A thermochemical treatment (800–1000 °C) with alkali additives transforms poorly plant available phosphorus phases to highly plant available calcium alkali phosphates (Ca,Mg)(Na,K)PO₄. In this study, we investigate the use of K₂SO₄ as additive to produce a phosphorus potassium fertilizer in laboratory-scale experiments (crucible). Pure K₂SO₄ is not suitable as high reaction temperatures are required due to the high melting point of K₂SO₄. To overcome this barrier, we carried out series of experiments with mixtures of K₂SO₄ and Na₂SO₄ resulting in a lower economically feasible reaction temperature (900–1000 °C). In this way, the produced phosphorus potassium fertilizers (8.4 wt.% K, 7.6 wt.% P) was highly plant available for phosphorus indicated by complete extractable phosphorus in neutral ammonium citrate solution. The added potassium is, in contrast to sodium, preferably incorporated into silicates instead of phosphorus phases. Thus, the highly extractable phase (Ca,Mg)(Na,K)PO₄ in the thermochemical products contain less potassium than expected. This preferred incorporation is confirmed by a pilot-scale trial (rotary kiln) and thermodynamic calculation.