Molecular characterization of denitrifying bacteria isolated from the anoxic reactor of a modified DEPHANOX plant performing enhanced biological phosphorus removal

Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) under anoxic conditions was achieved using a Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) system based on a modification of the DEPHANOX configuration. Double-probe Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization (FISH) revealed that Polyphosphate Accumulating Organisms (PAOs) comprised 12.3 +/- 3.2% of the total bacterial population in the modified DEPHANOX plant. The growing bacterial population on blood agar and Casitone Glycerol Yeast Autolysate agar (CGYA) medium was 16.7 +/- 0.9 x 10(5) and 3.0 +/- 0.6 x 10(5) colony forming units (cfu) mL(-1) activated sludge, respectively. A total of 121 bacterial isolates were characterized according to their denitrification ability, with 26 bacterial strains being capable of reducing nitrate to gas. All denitrifying isolates were placed within the alpha-, beta-, and gamma-subdivisions of Proteobacteria and the family Flavobacteriaceae. Furthermore, a novel denitrifying bacterium within the genus Pseudomonas was identified. This is the first report on the isolation and molecular characterization of denitrifying bacteria from EBPR sludge using a DEPHANOX-type plant.     

The Water Table: The Shifting Foundation of Life on Land

Hyperarid, arid, and semi-arid lands represent over a third of the Earth’s land surface, and are home to over 38 % of the increasing world population. Freshwater is a limiting resource on these lands, and withdrawal of groundwater substantially exceeds recharge. Withdrawals of groundwater for expanding agricultural and domestic use severely limit water availability for groundwater dependent ecosystems. We examine here, with emphasis on quantitative data, case histories of groundwater withdrawals at widely differing scales, on three continents, that range from the impact of a few wells, to the outcomes of total appropriation of flow in a major river system. The case histories provide a glimpse of the immense challenge of replacing groundwater resources once they are severely depleted, and put into sharp focus the question whether the magnitude of the current and future human, economic, and environmental consequences and costs of present practices of groundwater exploitation are adequately recognized.     

Simultaneous immobilization of metals and arsenic in acidic polluted soils near a copper smelter in central Chile

Introduction  

Acidic and metal(oid)-rich topsoils resulted after 34 years of continuous operations of a copper smelter in the Puchuncaví valley, central Chile. Currently, large-scale remediation actions for simultaneous in situ immobilization of metals and As are needed to reduce environmental risks of polluted soils. Aided phytostabilization is a cost-effective alternative, but adequate local available soil amendments have to be identified and management options have to be defined.     

Management options and effects on a marine ecosystem: assessing the future of the Baltic

We are using the coupled models in a decision support system, Nest, to evaluate the response of the marine ecosystem to changes in external loads through various management options. The models address all the seven major marine basins and the entire drainage basin of the Baltic Sea. A series of future scenarios have been developed, in close collaboration with the Helsinki Commission, to see the possible effects of improved wastewater treatment and manure handling, phosphorus-free detergents, and less intensive land use and live stocks. Improved wastewater treatment and the use of phosphorus-free detergents in the entire region would drastically decrease phosphorus loads and improve the marine environment, particularly the occurrence of cyanobacterial blooms. However, the Baltic Sea will remain eutrophic, and to reduce other effects, a substantial reduction of nitrogen emissions must be implemented. This can only be obtained in these scenarios by drastically changing land use. In a final scenario, we have turned 50% of all agricultural lands into grasslands, together with efficient wastewater treatments and a ban of phosphorus in detergents. This scenario will substantially reduce primary production and the extension of hypoxic bottoms, increase water transparency in the most eutrophied basins, and virtually eliminate extensive cyanobacterial blooms.     

Assessing Sediment Yield for Selected Watersheds in the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin Under Future Agricultural Scenarios

In the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin (GLB), corn acreage has been expanding since 2005 in response to high demand for corn as an ethanol feedstock. This study integrated remote sensing-derived products and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) within a geographic information system (GIS) modeling environment to assess the impacts of cropland change on sediment yield within four selected watersheds in the GLB. The SWAT models were calibrated during a 6 year period (2000–2005), and predicted stream flows were validated. The R ² values were 0.76, 0.80, 0.72, and 0.81 for the St. Joseph River, the St. Mary River, the Peshtigo River, and the Cattaraugus Creek watersheds, respectively. The corresponding E (Nash and Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient) values ranged from 0.24 to 0.79. The average annual sediment yields (tons/ha/year) ranged from 0.12 to 4.44 for the baseline (2000 to 2008) condition. Sediment yields were predicted to increase for possible future cropland change scenarios. The first scenario was to convert all “other” agricultural row crop types (i.e., sorghum) to corn fields and switch the current/baseline crop rotation into continuous corn. The average annual sediment yields increased 7–42 % for different watersheds. The second scenario was to further expand the corn planting to hay/pasture fields. The average annual sediment yields increased 33–127 % compared with baseline conditions.     

Toward Cyborg PPGIS: exploring socio-technical requirements for the use of web-based PPGIS in two municipal planning cases,Stockholm region,Sweden

Web-based Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) are increasingly used for surveying place values and informing municipal planning in contexts of urban densification. However, research is lagging behind the rapid deployment of PPGIS applications. Some of the main opportunities and challenges for the uptake and implementation of web-based PPGIS are derived from a literature review and two case studies dealing with municipal planning for urban densification in the Stockholm region, Sweden. A simple clustering analysis identified three interconnected themes that together determine the performance of PPGIS: (i) tool design and affordances; (ii) organisational capacity; and (iii) governance. The results of the case studies augment existing literature regarding the connections between the different socio-technical dimensions for the design, implementation and evaluation of PPGIS applications in municipal planning. A cyborg approach to PPGIS is then proposed to improve the theoretical basis for addressing these dimensions together.     

“We can keep the fire burning”: building action competence through environmental justice education in Uganda and Germany

The global dimensions of climate change necessitate a response that takes national differences – social, economic, geographic, and cultural – into account. Action-oriented education has a key role to play in advancing citizen engagement in a culture of sustainability. This paper describes research conducted with one such education programme, Youth Leading Environmental Change (YLEC), which operates in six countries and engages university-aged youth in discussion and practice related to global sustainability, systems thinking, and environmental justice. YLEC aims to advance four key competencies; this paper focuses on the goal of action competence, which involves acquiring knowledge, reflecting on experience in the context of one’s values, envisioning alternative futures, and acting individually and collectively to advance those alternatives. The present article examines the impacts of YLEC on environmental action competence in two of the countries involved in this research: Uganda and Germany. In-depth interviews were conducted with participants in both countries to examine the development of action competence during and after the programme. Findings suggest that outcomes differed in each country, reflective of participants’ different lived experiences. YLEC effectively built on the conditions faced in each country to accompany youth to a higher level of awareness and action. These findings have implications for environmental education programmes striving to work with multiple nations and diverse participants.     

Physical and Chemical Connectivity of Streams and Riparian Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Synthesis

Streams, riparian areas, floodplains, alluvial aquifers, and downstream waters (e.g., large rivers, lakes, and oceans) are interconnected by longitudinal, lateral, and vertical fluxes of water, other materials, and energy. Collectively, these interconnected waters are called fluvial hydrosystems. Physical and chemical connectivity within fluvial hydrosystems is created by the transport of nonliving materials (e.g., water, sediment, nutrients, and contaminants) which either do or do not chemically change (chemical and physical connections, respectively). A substantial body of evidence unequivocally demonstrates physical and chemical connectivity between streams and riparian wetlands and downstream waters. Streams and riparian wetlands are structurally connected to downstream waters through the network of continuous channels and floodplain form that make these systems physically contiguous, and the very existence of these structures provides strong geomorphologic evidence for connectivity. Functional connections between streams and riparian wetlands and their downstream waters vary geographically and over time, based on proximity, relative size, environmental setting, material disparity, and intervening units. Because of the complexity and dynamic nature of connections among fluvial hydrosystem units, a complete accounting of the physical and chemical connections and their consequences to downstream waters should aggregate over multiple years to decades.     

Occurrence,functions and biosynthesis of polyamides in microorganisms and biotechnological production

Microorganisms are able to synthesize three different polyamides by enzymatic processes independently from ribosomal protein biosynthesis: poly(gamma-D-glutamic acid), poly(epsilon-L-lysine) and multi-L-arginyl-poly(L-aspartic acid) which is also referred to as cyanophycin. These polyamides, which occur mainly in Bacillus spp. (and only a few other eubacteria and the nematocysts of Cnidaria, in Streptomyces albulus or in cyanobacteria, respectively), have recently attracted considerable interest of the chemical industry and may be suitable for various applications. This review summarizes our current knowledge on the occurrence, biosynthesis, physiological functions, and biodegradation as well as on the properties and putative applications of these polyamides. Emphasis is placed on the enzymology of the polymerization and on the genes encoding the polymerizing enzymes, which have only recently become available for cyanophycin synthetases. Prospects for novel production processes. in particular for cyanophycin, are also presented.     

Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China? — A review

Analysingwastewater samples is an innovative approach that overcomesmany limitations of traditional surveys to identify and measure a range of chemicals that were consumed by or exposed to people living in a sewer catchment area. First conceptualised in 2001, much progress has been made to make wastewater analysis (WWA) a reliable and robust tool for measuring chemical consumption and/or exposure. At the moment, the most popular application of WWA, sometimes referred as sewage epidemiology, is to monitor the consumption of illicit drugs in communities around the globe, including China. The approach has been largely adopted by lawenforcement agencies as a device tomonitor the temporal and geographical patterns of drug consumption. In the future, themethodology can be extended to other chemicals including biomarkers of population health (e.g. environmental or oxidative stress biomarkers, lifestyle indicators or medications that are taken by different demographic groups) and pollutants that people are exposed to (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, perfluorinated chemicals, and toxic pesticides). The extension of WWA to a huge range of chemicals may give rise to a field called sewage chemical-information mining (SCIM) with unexplored potentials. China has many densely populated cities with thousands of sewage treatment plants which are favourable for applying WWA/SCIM in order to help relevant authorities gather information about illicit drug consumption and population health status. However, there are some prerequisites and uncertainties of the methodology that should be addressed for SCIM to reach its full potential in China.