Our future in the Anthropocene biosphere

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed an interconnected and tightly coupled globalized world in rapid change. This article sets the scientific stage for understanding and responding to such change for global sustainability and resilient societies. We provide a systemic overview of the current situation where people and nature are dynamically intertwined and embedded in the biosphere, placing shocks and extreme events as part of this dynamic; humanity has become the major force in shaping the future of the Earth system as a whole; and the scale and pace of the human dimension have caused climate change, rapid loss of biodiversity, growing inequalities, and loss of resilience to deal with uncertainty and surprise. Taken together, human actions are challenging the biosphere foundation for a prosperous development of civilizations. The Anthropocene reality—of rising system-wide turbulence—calls for transformative change towards sustainable futures. Emerging technologies, social innovations, broader shifts in cultural repertoires, as well as a diverse portfolio of active stewardship of human actions in support of a resilient biosphere are highlighted as essential parts of such transformations.     

NABat: A top-down,bottom-up solution to collaborative continental-scale monitoring

Collaborative monitoring over broad scales and levels of ecological organization can inform conservation efforts necessary to address the contemporary biodiversity crisis. An important challenge to collaborative monitoring is motivating local engagement with enough buy-in from stakeholders while providing adequate top-down direction for scientific rigor, quality control, and coordination. Collaborative monitoring must reconcile this inherent tension between top-down control and bottom-up engagement. Highly mobile and cryptic taxa, such as bats, present a particularly acute challenge. Given their scale of movement, complex life histories, and rapidly expanding threats, understanding population trends of bats requires coordinated broad-scale collaborative monitoring. The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) reconciles top-down, bottom-up tension with a hierarchical master sample survey design, integrated data analysis, dynamic data curation, regional monitoring hubs, and knowledge delivery through web-based infrastructure. NABat supports collaborative monitoring across spatial and organizational scales and the full annual lifecycle of bats.     

Beyond ‘trees are good’: Disservices,management costs,and tradeoffs in urban forestry

The provision of ecosystem services is a prominent rationale for urban greening, and there is a prevailing mantra that ‘trees are good’. However, understanding how urban trees contribute to sustainability must also consider disservices. In this perspective article, we discuss recent research on ecosystem disservices of urban trees, including infrastructure conflicts, health and safety impacts, aesthetic issues, and environmentally detrimental consequences, as well as management costs related to ecological disturbances and risk management. We also discuss tradeoffs regarding species selection and local conservation concerns, as well as the central role of human perception in the interpretation of ecosystem services and disservices, particularly the uncritical assertion that ‘everybody loves trees’. Urban forestry decision-making that fails to account for disservices can have unintended negative consequences for communities. Further research is needed regarding life cycle assessments, stakeholder decision-making, return-on-investment, and framings of services and disservices in urban forestry.     

Migration and transformation of heavy metals in hyperaccumulators during the thermal treatment: a review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The pollution of heavy metals (HMs) in the soil has become one of the important factors affecting the national environment and human health....     

Ameliorative effects of deferiprone and tetraethylammonium salt of salinomycinic acid on lead-induced toxicity in mouse testes

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this study, we compare the effects of deferiprone (Def) and tetraethylammonium salt of salinomycinic acid (Sal) on lead (Pb)-induced toxicity in...     

Removal efficiency of emerging micropollutants in biofilter wastewater treatment plants in tropical areas

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - We studied the removal of 61 emerging micropollutants, including illicit drugs, in a biofilter wastewater treatment plant located in the French Indies...     

铁炭内电解垂直流人工湿地对污水厂尾水深度脱氮效果

针对污水厂尾水总氮(TN)含量偏高、微生物可利用碳源低的问题,构建铁炭内电解垂直流人工湿地(ICIE-VFCW)装置,研究了ICIE-VFCW对尾水的处理效果,并采用紫外-可见光光谱(UV-VIS)、凝胶过滤色谱(GFC),进一步探讨了ICIEVFCW强化脱氮机制.结果表明,ICIE-VFCW可提高系统对尾水中COD的去除,出水COD可稳定在30 mg·L~(-1)以下,全年、暖季、寒季COD平均去除率较普通垂直流人工湿地分别可提高10.16%、9.81%、11.22%.系统出水TN可维持在10 mg·L~(-1)以下,全年、暖季、寒季TN平均去除率较普通垂直流人工湿地分别提高13.72%、12.90%、16.17%.经过人工湿地处理后,污水中有机物的腐殖度、芳香度及相对分子质量(Mr)均有所下降,且ICIE-VFCW中Mr下降更为明显.湿地基质掺杂铁炭可促进尾水中大分子有机物转化为小分子,为微生物提供更多可利用碳源,从而提高脱氮效率.     

Assessment of inherent vulnerability of forests at landscape level: a case study from Western Ghats in India

Assessment of vulnerability is an important step in building long-term resilience in the forestry sector. The objective of this paper is to present a methodological approach to assess inherent vulnerability of forests at landscape level. The approach involves use of vulnerability indicators, the pairwise comparison method, and geographic information system (GIS) tools. We apply this approach to assess the inherent vulnerability of forests of the Western Ghats Karnataka (WGK) landscape, which is a part of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India. Four vulnerability indicators, namely biological richness, disturbance index, canopy cover, and slope, are selected. We find that forests in 30, 36, 19, and 15 % grid points in this region show low, medium, high, and very high inherent vulnerability, respectively. The forest showing high and very high inherent vulnerability are mostly dry deciduous forests and plantations located largely on the eastern side of the landscape. We also find that canopy cover is one of the key indicators that determine the inherent vulnerability of forests, and natural forests are inherently less vulnerable than man-made plantations. Spatial assessment of inherent vulnerability of forests at landscape level is particularly useful for developing strategies to build resilience to current stressors and climate change in future.     

不同浓度锌离子污染土的工程力学性能试验研究

通过直剪试验、压缩试验和三轴试验对人工制备最优含水率下不同浓度锌离子污染土的工程力学性能进行测试,研究了不同锌离子浓度污染土的抗剪强度和压缩特性。结果表明:随着锌离子浓度的增加,污染土的内摩擦角和压缩系数增加,内聚力和压缩模量下降,而污染土的孔隙比随着锌离子浓度的增加先减小后增大;在不同垂直压力下,随着压力的增加,污染土的压缩系数整体先减小后增大,压缩模量先增大后减小。     

污水净化装置内部流场特性分析研究

针对目前城市污水存在悬浮物和砂粒的问题,为了减少砂粒大量存在给后续单元带来的处理压力,设计了一种可实现在加药、絮凝等处理模块前,完成污水内固相悬浮物及颗粒的新型净化装置.基于计算流体动力学软件Fluent,运用混合相模型(Mixture),对新型污水净化装置内部流场特性及分离性能进行数值模拟分析.模拟结果显示新型污水净化装置内部流场分布均匀,分离性能稳定并呈现出了较好的固相去除效果,其中悬浮物的分离效率达90%以上,固相颗粒分离效率达91%.