Water Hyacinth in China: A Sustainability Science-Based Management Framework

The invasion of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) has resulted in enormous ecological and economic consequences worldwide. Although the spread of this weed in Africa, Australia, and North America has been well documented, its invasion in China is yet to be fully documented. Here we report that since its introduction about seven decades ago, water hyacinth has infested many water bodies across almost half of China’s territory, causing a decline of native biodiversity, alteration of ecosystem services, deterioration of aquatic environments, and spread of diseases affecting human health. Water hyacinth infestations have also led to enormous economic losses in China by impeding water flows, paralyzing navigation, and damaging irrigation and hydroelectricity facilities. To effectively control the rampage of water hyacinth in China, we propose a sustainability science-based management framework that explicitly incorporates principles from landscape ecology and Integrated Pest Management. This framework emphasizes multiple-scale long-term monitoring and research, integration among different control techniques, combination of control with utilization, and landscape-level adaptive management. Sustainability science represents a new, transdisciplinary paradigm that integrates scientific research, technological innovation, and socioeconomic development of particular regions. Our proposed management framework is aimed to broaden the currently dominant biological control-centered view in China and to illustrate how sustainability science can be used to guide the research and management of water hyacinth.     

Impact of pre-oxidation on the formation of byproducts in algae-laden water disinfection: Insights from fluorescent and molecular weight

Pre-oxidation has been reported to be an effective way to remove algal cells in water, but the released algal organic matter (AOM) could be oxidized and lead to the increment in disinfection by-product (DBP) formation. The relationship between pre-oxidation and AOM-derived DBP formation needs to be approached more precisely. This study compared the impact of four pre-oxidants, ozone (O₃), chlorine dioxide (ClO₂), potassium permanganate (KMnO₄) and sodium hypochlorite (NaClO), on the formation of nitrogenous (N-) and carbonaceous (C-) DBPs in AOM chlorination. The characterization (fluorescent properties, molecular weight distribution and amino acids concentration) on AOM samples showed that the characterization properties variations after pre-oxidation were highly dependent on the oxidizing ability of oxidants. The disinfection experiments showed that O₃ increased DBP formation most significantly, which was consistent with the result of characterization properties variations. Then canonical correspondent analysis (CCA) and Pearson's correlation analysis were conducted based on the characterization data and DBP formation. CCA indicated that C-DBPs formation was highly dependent on fluorescent data. The formation of haloacetic acids (HAAs) had a positive correlation with aromatic protein-like component while trichloromethane (TCM) had a positive correlation with fulvic acid-like component. Pearson's correlation analysis showed that low molecular weight fractions were favorable to form N-DBPs. Therefore, characterization data could provide the advantages in the control of DBP formation, which further revealed that KMnO₄ and ClO₂ were better options for removing algal cells as well as limiting DBP formation.     

The role of doped-Mn on enhancing arsenic removal by MgAl-LDHs

To meet the challenges posed by global arsenic water contamination, the MgAlMn-LDHs with extraordinary efficiency of arsenate removal was developed. In order to clarify the enhancement effect of the doped-Mn on the arsenate removal performance of the LDHs, the cluster models of the MgAlMn-LDHs and MgAl-LDHs were established and calculated by using density functional theory (DFT). The results shown that the doped-Mn can significantly change the electronic structure of the LDHs and improve its chemical activity. Compared with the MgAl-LDHs that without the doped-Mn, the HOMO-LUMO gap was smaller after doping. In addition, the -OH and Al on the laminates were also activated to improve the adsorption property of the LDHs. Besides, the doped-Mn existed as a novel active site. On the other hand, the MgAlMn-LDHs with the doped-Mn, the increased of the binding energy, as well as the decreased of the ion exchange energy of interlayer Cl⁻, making the ability to arsenate removal had been considerably elevated than the MgAl-LDHs. Furthermore, there is an obvious coordination covalent bond between arsenate and the laminates of the MgAlMn-LDHs that with the doped-Mn.     

Interactions between lead(II) ions and dissolved organic matter derived from organic fertilizers incubated in the field

This work was to study composition characteristics and the subsequent effect on the lead (Pb) binding properties of dissolved organic matter (DOM) derived from seaweed-based (SWOF) and chicken manure organic fertilizers (CMOF) during a one-year field incubation experiment using the excitation-emission matrix-parallel factor (EEM-PARAFAC) and two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2DCOS) analysis. Results showed that high aromatic and hydrophobic fluorescent substances were enriched in CMOF-derived DOM and SWOF-derived DOM and enhanced over time. And phenolic groups in the fulvic-like substances for SWOF-derived DOM and carboxyl groups in the humic-like substances for CMOF-derived DOM had the fastest responses over time, respectively. Moreover, both non-fluorescent polysaccharides and fluorescent humic-like substances or fulvic-like substances with aromatic (C=C) groups first participated in the binding process of Pb to SWOF-derived DOM on day 0 and 180 during the lead binding process. In contrast, humic-like substances associated with aromatic (C=C) and phenolic groups gave a faster response to Pb binding on day 360. Regarding CMOF-derived DOM, the fulvic-like substances associated with aromatic (C=C) and carboxylic groups displayed a faster response to Pb ions on day 0. Nonetheless, polysaccharides and humic-like associated with phenolic groups had a faster response on days 180 and 360. It is noteworthy that the polysaccharides, which participated in Pb binding to CMOF-derived DOM, posed a higher risk of Pb in the environment after 360 days. Therefore, these findings gave new insights into the long-term applications of commercial organic fertilizers for the amendment of soil.     

Identification and characterization of Fe3O4/peroxodisulfate advanced oxidation products from sulfameter

Sulfonamides (SAs) are one of the most widely used antibiotics and their residuals in the environment could cause some negative environmental issues. Advanced oxidation such as Fenton-like reaction has been widely applied in the treatment of SAs polluted water. Degradation rates of 95%-99.7% were achieved in this work for the tested 8 SAs, including sulfisomidine, sulfameter (SME), phthalylsulfathiazole, sulfamethoxypyridazine, sulfamonomethoxine, sulfisoxazole, sulfachloropyridazine, and sulfadimethoxine, in the Fe₃O₄/peroxodisulfate (PDS) oxidation system after the optimization of PDS concentration and pH. Meanwhile, it was found that a lot of unknown oxidation products were formed, which brought up the uncertainty of health risks to the environment, and the identification of these unknown products was critical. Therefore, SME was selected as the model compound, from which the oxidation products were never elucidated, to identify these intermediates/products. With liquid chromatography-high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS/MS), 10 new products were identified, in which 2-amino-5-methoxypyrimidine (AMP) was confirmed by its standard. The investigation of the oxidation process of SME indicated that most of the products were not stable and the degradation pathways were very complicated as multiple reactions, such as oxidation of the amino group, SO₂ extrusion, and potential cross-reaction occurred simultaneously. Though most of the products were not verified due to the lack of standards, our results could be helpful in the evaluation of the treatment performance of SAs containing wastewater.     

MoS2 quantum dots based MoS2/HKUST-1 composites for the highly efficient catalytic oxidation of elementary mercury

Due to the ever-tightening regulation on mercury emission in recent decades, there is an urgent need to develop novel materials for the removal of elemental mercury at coal-fired power plants. In this study, a series of MoS₂ quantum dots (QDs)-based MoS₂/HKUST-1 composite materials were prepared. It is found that MoS₂ QDs were encapsulated by HKUST-1 and enhanced the crystallinity and specific surface area of HKUST-1. The MoS₂/HKUST-1 showed excellent performance in catalytic oxidation of Hg⁰ as compared with pristine HKUST-1. It is found that surface layer of lattice oxygens is active and participates in Hg⁰ oxidation, while the consumption of surface oxygens then leads to the formation of oxygen vacancies on the surface. These vacancies are effective in the adsorption and dissociation of O₂, which subsequently participates in the oxidation of Hg⁰. Moreover, the study on the influence of commonly seen gas components, such as SO₂, NO, NH₃ and H₂O, etc., on Hg⁰ oxidation demonstrated that synergistic effects exist among these gas species. It is found that the presence of NO promotes the oxidation of Hg⁰ using oxygen as the oxidant.     

Ozone episodes during and after the 2018 Chinese National Day holidays in Guangzhou: Implications for the control of precursor VOCs

The impact of reducing industrial emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on ozone (O₃) pollution is of wide concern particularly in highly industrialized megacities. In this study, O₃, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and VOCs were measured at an urban site in the Pearl River Delta region during the 2018 Chinese National Day Holidays and two after-holiday periods (one with ozone pollution and another without). O₃ pollution occurred throughout the 7-day holidays even industrial emissions of VOCs were passively reduced due to temporary factory shutdowns, and the toluene to benzene ratios dropped from ∼10 during non-holidays to ∼5 during the holidays. Box model (AtChem2-MCM) simulations with the input of observation data revealed that O₃ formation was all VOC-limited, and alkenes had the highest relative incremental reactivity (RIR) during the holiday and non-holiday O₃ episodes while aromatics had the highest RIR during the non-pollution period. Box model also demonstrated that even aromatics decreased proportionally to levels with near-zero contributions of industrial aromatic solvents, O₃ concentrations would only decrease by less than 20% during the holiday and non-holiday O₃ episodes and ozone pollution in the periods could not be eliminated. The results imply that controlling emissions of industrial aromatic solvents might be not enough to eliminate O₃ pollution in the region, and more attention should be paid to anthropogenic reactive alkenes. Isoprene and formaldehyde were among the top 3 species by RIRs in all the three pollution and non-pollution periods, suggesting substantial contribution to O₃ formation from biogenic VOCs.     

Assessing Ecotourism from a Multi-stakeholder Perspective: Xingkai Lake National Nature Reserve,China

Ecotourism development is closely associated with the sustainability of protected natural areas. When facilitated by appropriate management, ecotourism can contribute to conservation and development, as well as the well-being of local communities. As such, ecotourism has been proposed and practiced in different forms in many places, including China. This study assesses ecotourism development at Xingkai Lake National Nature Reserve in Heilongjiang Province, China. Key informant interviews were conducted with representatives from the provincial Forestry Department, the Nature Reserve, and the local community. Observation was undertaken on three site visits and secondary data were collected. The potential for providing quality natural experiences is high and tourism development is occurring rapidly. However, current relationships between people, resources, and tourism have yet to provide mutual benefits necessary for successful ecotourism. The multi-stakeholder management style and the ambiguity of landownership within the nature reserve constitute structural difficulties for ecotourism management and operation. Although participation in ecotourism could provide a livelihood opportunity and interests in involvement in tourism have been identified among the local fishing community, current involvement is limited mainly due to the lack of mechanisms for participation. Therefore, it is recommended that management programs and government policies should be established to provide a platform for community participation in ecotourism. Then, a positive synergistic relationship between tourism, environment, and community could be developed. Planning and policy requirements are discussed for ecotourism development in protected areas in China.     

Recovery of Cu and Fe from Printed Circuit Board waste sludge by ultrasound: Evaluation of industrial application

The paper presents a novel cleaner process for metal recovery from the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) waste sludge by assistance of ultrasound. The process can effectively recover heavy metals at low cost with high separation and recovery efficiency, produce high quality products and also achieve zero waste discharge with operation at industrial scale. With the PCB waste sludge containing (wet content) 3.14–4.85% copper and 3.71–4.23% iron, copper recovery efficiency of 95.2–97.5% and iron recovery efficiency of 97.1–98.5% were achieved, while the purity of copper sulfate produced by the process was 98.0% and the produced ferric chloride had a satisfied quality for using as a coagulant material for the plant on-site wastewater treatment. The process had been successfully scaled up to the industrial scaled applications in a heavy metal recovery plant in city of Huizhou, China for more than two years. The novel cleaner heavy metal recovery process has a great prospect on the applications of resources recovery and environmental protection practices.     

桥式起重机门的安全问题

介绍了桥式起重机上门的开启方向、联锁保护装置的作用、要求等安全问题。