Constructing 3D magnetic flower-like Fe3O4@SiO2@Co3O4@BiOCl heterojunction photocatalyst for degrading rhodamine B

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this work, the 3D magnetic flower-like Fe3O4@SiO2@Co3O4@BiOCl heterojunction photocatalyst was successfully prepared. The combination of BiOCl with...     

Monitoring a changing Arctic: Recent advancements in the study of sea ice microbial communities

Sea ice continues to decline across many regions of the Arctic, with remaining ice becoming increasingly younger and more dynamic. These changes alter the habitats of microbial life that live within the sea ice, which support healthy functioning of the marine ecosystem and provision of resources for human-consumption, in addition to influencing biogeochemical cycles (e.g. air–sea CO₂ exchange). With the susceptibility of sea ice ecosystems to climate change, there is a pressing need to fill knowledge gaps surrounding sea ice habitats and their microbial communities. Of fundamental importance to this goal is the development of new methodologies that permit effective study of them. Based on outcomes from the DiatomARCTIC project, this paper integrates existing knowledge with case studies to provide insight on how to best document sea ice microbial communities, which contributes to the sustainable use and protection of Arctic marine and coastal ecosystems in a time of environmental change.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01658-z.     

Increasing collaboration between China and India in the environmental sciences to foster global sustainability

As the two largest countries by population, China and India have pervasive effects on the ecosphere. Because of their human population size and long international boundary, they share biodiversity and the threats to it, as well as crops, pests and diseases. We ranked the two countries on a variety of environmental challenges and solutions, illustrating quantitatively their environmental footprint and the parallels between them regarding the threats to their human populations and biodiversity. Yet we show that China and India continue to have few co-authorships in environmental publications, even as their major funding for scientific research has expanded. An agenda for collaboration between China and India can start with the shared Himalaya, linking the countries’ scientists and institutions. A broader agenda can then be framed around environmental challenges that have regional patterns. Coordinated and collaborative research has the potential to improve the two countries’ environmental performance, with implications for global sustainability.     

中试条件下稻秸干法厌氧发酵搅拌方式的优化

针对秸秆类农业废弃物干法厌氧发酵过程中易产生物料分层、表面结垢以及存在“死角”等问题,通过改进横卧推流式中试厌氧反应器搅拌工艺,探索了连续运行条件下机械搅拌、前端气动搅拌和全程气动搅拌等3种单一搅拌方式对稻秸干法厌氧发酵产气规律、底物降解特性及系统稳定性的影响,并通过进一步设置不同的搅拌频次优化了机械搅拌和前端气动搅拌组合工艺,综合考察了发酵效率和能源消耗情况。结果表明,在单一搅拌工艺条件下,稻秸干法厌氧发酵40 d总产气量呈现出“机械搅拌>前端气动搅拌>全程气动搅拌”的规律,分别为75.5、66.5和61.9 m³,对应的单位VS产气量分别为441.9、389.3和362.3 L·kg⁻¹,这说明采用改进型框型叶片的机械搅拌可有效翻动物料,以促进其与发酵液的充分接触。在进一步优化“机械+前端气动”的组合搅拌工艺后发现,稻秸40 d产气量与单一机械搅拌模式较为接近,尤其是“机械搅拌(每天4次)+前端气动搅拌(每天4次)”的组合搅拌方式,单位VS产气量高达447.2 L·kg ⁻¹,纤维素和半纤维素降解率分别可达14.9%和15.1%;但从能源损耗角度来看,“机械搅拌(每天2次)+前端气动搅拌(每天4次)”的组合搅拌方式中能耗最低,仅为单一机械搅拌方式能耗的约40%。在稻秸干法厌氧发酵工程实际运行过程中,可根据厌氧发酵效率和能耗节省需求,因地制宜地选择合适的组合搅拌工艺。本研究结果可为木质纤维素类废弃物干法厌氧发酵工程中的搅拌方式改进提供参考。     

Improving dialogue among researchers,local and indigenous peoples and decision-makers to address issues of climate change in the North

Ambio - The Circumpolar North has been changing rapidly within the last decades, and the socioeconomic systems of the Eurasian Arctic and Siberia in particular have displayed the most dramatic...     

Correction to: Keeping pace with forestry: Multi-scale conservation in a changing production forest matrix

Ambio - In the original published article, the sentence “Nevertheless, semi-natural forest remnants continue to be harvested and fragmented (Svensson et al. 2018; Jonsson et al. 2019), and...     

“Modern agriculture” transfers many pesticides to watercourses: a case study of a representative rural catchment of southern Brazil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The total cultivated area in Brazil reached to 62 million ha in 2018, with the predominance of genetically modified soybean and corn (36 and 17...     

Plume analysis from field evaluations of a portable air quality monitoring system

ABSTRACT

Near-road measurements in Rochester, NY with a Portable Air Quality Monitoring System indicate a significant plume control of PM_2.5 black carbon (BC) concentrations. This study evaluates the performance of two portable air quality enclosures deployed at collocated research sites to determine their accuracy and usefulness in field deployments, and specifically in pollution plume analysis. One system deployed collocated sensors for measurement of particulate matter mass concentration (Thermo pDR 1500 against Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM) measurement) and the second system deployed sensors for measurement of black carbon (Magee AE33 aethalometer and Brechtel Tricolor Absorption Photometer) in ambient and near-road locations in Rochester, New York, respectively. While the optical PM_2.5 sensors tended to be biased in their determination of concentration by ~15%, they followed changes and trends in concentration very well. The black carbon sensors in the portable systems agreed very well with each other and with the collocated sensor. As a case study to determine the contribution from statistically significant short-lived excursions of pollutant concentration, Morlet wavelet analysis was performed on data from the portable system sensors. Black carbon was found to be strongly influenced by plume behavior with significant plume excursions representing just over 12% of all data points and contributing on average 1 µg/m³ of black carbon above ambient concentrations.

Implications: This paper first evaluates two air pollutant monitoring enclosures with wide applicability including near-road detection of pollutants. Then, we present a novel method to designate isolate statistically significant excursions in air pollution concentration which can be used to determine the impact of pollutant plumes as observed in PM and black carbon behavior near road.     

Effects of UV-modified biochar derived from phytoremediation residue on Cd bioavailability and uptake in Coriandrum sativum L. in a Cd-contaminated soil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Biochar has been applied widely as an amendment in the remediation of contaminated soil to immobilize the heavy metals. However, the role of...