Twentieth century droughts and agriculture: Examples from impacts on soybean production in Kentucky,USA

Drought is a significant natural hazard that slowly evolves over time. Because of its character, drought is difficult to monitor and impacts are often poorly documented. Agriculture is one of the most sensitive sectors that are prone to drought. The objective of this research is to assess the impacts of drought on soybean production and revenue in Kentucky. Soybeans are one of Kentucky’s most important commodities. In this study, impacts of 1930–1931, 1940–1942, 1952–1955, 1987–1988, 1999–2000, and 2007 droughts were considered. It was found that over the recent years, up to 56 % of the revenue from soybeans was lost due to drought. During the first half of the twentieth century, revenue loss reached up to 77 %. This research is valuable to the general public as well as planners and policy makers. Proper documentation of impacts of past droughts will help identify drought vulnerabilities and results in better risk management and mitigation.     

生物滴滤塔净化挥发性有机废气动力学模型研究

通过对生物滴滤塔净化VOCs废气过程的分析,建立了动力学模型,简化处理后得出了基于生物降解为一级反应动力学和零级反应动力学的污染物浓度沿填料层高度变化的方程,并通过实验数据对方程进行了验证,结果表明基于生物降解一级反应动力学的方程能较好地与实验数据吻合,但常数ξα/Q却随入口浓度Cgi的增大而升高。最后,采用实验数据回归出了ξα/Q随Cg变化的曲线。     

Production of new concrete with leather tannery waste used as partial replacement of the natural sand

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Leather production is a technology that boosts the economy because of its versatility and durability. However, the wastes generated throughout the...     

Face mask and medical waste generation in the City of Baguio,Philippines: its current management and GHG footprint

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The daily use of facemask to prevent virus transmission increases the negative effect on the environment because of improper waste disposal. Due to...     

Zinc removal from synthetic waters using magnetite/graphene oxide composites

The removal of heavy metals from wastewater has become a global challenge, which demands the continuous study of efficient and low-cost treatment alternatives such as adsorption. In this research, the removal of zinc was evaluated using batch adsorption processes with nonconventional materials such as graphene oxide (GO), magnetite (MG), and their composites (GO:MG), formulated with three weight ratios (2:1, 1:1, and 1:2). Graphene was synthesized by the modified Marcano method, using pencil lead graphite as a precursor. MG and the composites were synthesized by chemical coprecipitation of ferrous sulfate and ferric chloride. The materials were characterized by Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method to determine the functional groups, microstructural and morphological characteristics, and specific surface area. Batch adsorption tests were carried out to optimize the adsorbent dose and contact time with zinc solutions of 10 ppm. Zinc adsorption reached equilibrium at 2 h, with an optimal dose between 0.25 and 1.0 g/L. The maximum zinc removal efficiencies/adsorption capacities were 98.6%/165.6, 83.4%/47.6, 83.5%/21.9, 72.8%/19.9, and 82.2%/9.25 mg/g using GO, 2GO:1MG, 1GO:1MG, 1GO:2MG, and MG, respectively. Furthermore, the analysis of the isotherm and adsorption kinetics models determined that the adsorption processes using MG and the composites fit the Sips and pseudo-second-order models.     

Nutrient pathways and their susceptibility to past and future change in the Eurasian Arctic Ocean

Climate change is altering nutrient cycling within the Arctic Ocean, having knock-on effects to Arctic ecosystems. Primary production in the Arctic is principally nitrogen-limited, particularly in the western Pacific-dominated regions where denitrification exacerbates nitrogen loss. The nutrient status of the eastern Eurasian Arctic remains under debate. In the Barents Sea, primary production has increased by 88% since 1998. To support this rapid increase in productivity, either the standing stock of nutrients has been depleted, or the external nutrient supply has increased. Atlantic water inflow, enhanced mixing, benthic nitrogen cycling, and land–ocean interaction have the potential to alter the nutrient supply through addition, dilution or removal. Here we use new datasets from the Changing Arctic Ocean program alongside historical datasets to assess how nitrate and phosphate concentrations may be changing in response to these processes. We highlight how nutrient dynamics may continue to change, why this is important for regional and international policy-making and suggest relevant research priorities for the future.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01673-0.     

Mineralogical characterization of the Tournemire argillite after in situ interaction with concretes

This study aims to investigate, through mineralogical characterization (SEM, XRD) and mass-balance calculations, the effects of contact time, concrete types and presence of free water on the Tournemire argillite under in situ conditions. Three sampling zones from Excavation Disturbed Zone (EDZ) areas have been chosen: (1) dry contacts, collected at the tunnel masonry/argillite interface (contact time - 125 years), (2) wet contacts, taken close to drained areas below the tunnel roadbed in contact with the canal draining the Cernon fault water (contact time - 15 and 7 years) and at the tunnel masonry/argillite interface over 70 m from the Cernon fault (contact time - 125 years). This study shows that: in the absence of water, no significant modification of argillite is observed after 125 years, except for pyrite dissolution and gypsum precipitation; in the presence of water, precipitation of gypsum, recrystallization of mixed-layer clays, neoformation of zeolites and K-feldspars overgrowths are observed. At the concrete/argillite interface near the Cernon fault, important dolomite neoformation and leaching of chlorite and kaolinite occur. These processes are enhanced with contact time, low flow rate and the nature of the concrete (compound cement Portland CEM II 32.5). Evidence for oxidation processes linked to the EDZ (pyrite oxidation, Fe-oxy-hydroxide and gypsum precipitation) is observed.     

Factors affecting TCLP lead leachability from computer CPUs

The factors impacting lead leachability from computer central processing units (CPUs) during the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) were investigated. Several CPUs were disassembled and their component materials were decreased in size to meet the requirements of the TCLP. The impact of CPU composition was examined by leaching different combinations of the CPU components. The ferrous metal content of the mixture greatly impacted lead leaching. TCLP lead concentrations of CPUs predicted by leaching the lead-bearing printed wire boards alone were much greater than those measured when the ferrous metal of the CPU was included in the mixture. The leaching of iron and zinc from the galvanized steel components of the CPU created electrochemical conditions where lead was less soluble. Additional size reduction beyond that required by the TCLP did not result in additional lead leaching. As the volume of head space above the leaching solution increased, the concentration of lead measured increased as well.     

Effect of temperature and organic nutrients on the biodegradation of linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) during the composting of anaerobically digested sludge from a wastewater treatment plant

Limits on the application of biosolids (anaerobically processed sludges from wastewater treatment plants) as fertilizers for the amendment of soil are becoming greater because of the accumulation of recalcitrant substances, making necessary the use of techniques that bring the concentration of xenobiotics to lower concentrations than those permitted. In general, the biosolids composting process is sufficient to reduce the usual concentration of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) to low levels. In this work, an assessment is made on the effect of temperature in the capacity of enriched bacterial populations to biodegrade LAS, together with the influence that the available nutrients may have in the biodegradation of these compounds. The results show that the microbial metabolism of LAS was not observed in the thermophilic range. The optimum temperature for the biodegradation of LAS appears to be around 40 degrees C, this is, the lowest assayed here, and at this temperature the differences in the biodegradation of LAS among the nutritionally supplemented cultures are small.     

Influence of dairy manure addition on the biological and thermal kinetics of composting of greenhouse tomato plant residues

A laboratory-scale bioreactor was used to investigate the influence of dairy manure addition (as an inoculum and a carbon source) on the biological and thermal kinetics of the composting process of tomato plant residues-wood shavings mixture. Urea was added (as a nitrogen source) to correct the initial C:N ratio to 30:1 and the initial moisture content was also adjusted to 60%. The result of this study indicated that manure addition to the tomato residues-wood shavings mixture is a good source of macro and micronutrients required for supporting the composting microorganisms. Manure addition increased the rate of temperature increase and the duration of maximum temperature and reduced the lag and the peak time, all of which resulted in a significant reduction in the retention time. However, thermophilic temperature (> or = 40 degrees Celsius) was only achieved with 30%, 40% and 50% manure addition for 3, 7 and 9h. Total carbon reductions were in the range of 9.4-10.8% and TKN reductions were in the range of 3.4-6.0%. Neither the nitrogen nor the moisture content were limiting factors as the C:N ratio remained in the range of 26:1 to 28:1 and the moisture content remained within the optimum range of 58-61%. The maximum temperature of each mixture correlated with the reduction of total carbon, but carbon availability was a limiting factor in these experiments. In order to attain and sustain a thermophilic phase during the composting process, the addition of a readily available carbon source to the tomato should be investigated and carbon type (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) should be taken into account.