Interrelationships among foreign direct investments,renewable energy,and CO2 emissions for different European country groups: a panel ARDL approach

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study estimated unbalanced panel data analysis to investigate the relationship among CO2 emissions, GDP, renewable and non-renewable energy...     

PVC and PET microplastics in caddisfly (Lepidostoma basale) cases reduce case stability

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Caddisfly larvae occur in streams and rivers, and many caddisfly species build protective cases using material from their habitat such as sand grains....     

Removal of dye using peroxidase-immobilized Buckypaper/polyvinyl alcohol membrane in a multi-stage filtration column via RSM and ANFIS

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The feasibility and performance of Jicama peroxidase (JP) immobilized Buckypaper/polyvinyl alcohol (BP/PVA) membrane for methylene blue (MB) dye...     

Comparing the Adoption of Contaminated Land Remediation Technologies in the United States,United Kingdom,and China

In many locations across the world, land contamination poses a serious threat to human health and the wider environment. For instance, a report published on April 17, 2014, revealed that China now has 16.1 percent of its land contaminated by various organic and inorganic contaminants, posing a range of challenges from human health risk to food security. The innovation and adoption of suitable remediation technologies is critical for solving land contamination issues. However, little is known about the pattern of remediation technology adoption, as well as its determining factors. This study uses a questionnaire survey in the United States, United Kingdom, and China to examine the spatial variation of remediation technology adoption. It further explores the temporal trend of remediation technology adoption using secondary data from the U.S. Superfund program. The study identified significant differences in remediation technology adoption among these countries, which are attributed to the different environmental, social, economic, and regulatory contexts. It is argued that the full implications of remediation technology adoption to sustainable development should be further studied, and policy instruments should be designed accordingly to promote those remediation technologies that align the best with long‐term sustainability. Technology developers may also use these implications to adjust their research and development priorities. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Assessment of Groundwater Quality in a Structurally Deformed Granitic Terrain in Hyderabad, India

Geochemical study of groundwater from a structurally deformed granitic terrain near Hyderabad (India) was carried out to understand and evaluate the hydrogeochemical processes and quality of groundwater. Several trace elements (Fe, Mn, Be, Al, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Sr, Mo, Cd, Sb, Ba, Pb, U) along with major ions and minor elements were precisely estimated in shallow and drilled wells to know the suitability of water for drinking and irrigation purposes. Analytical data shows that pH and major ion chemistry in dug wells and bore wells do not vary significantly, while some trace elements (Fe, Mn, Al, Be, Co, Pb, U and Zn) vary in dug wells and bore wells, which can be attributed to differential mineral weathering and dissolution/precipitation reactions along fractures/joints. Although the water is not potable, it was found to be suitable for irrigation with little danger in the development of harmful level of exchangeable sodium. It is inferred that the chemical composition of the groundwater in this region is likely to have its origin from silicate weathering reactions and dissolution/precipitation processes supported by rainfall and groundwater flow.     

Heavy metals and arsenic concentrations in ten fish species from the Šalek lakes (Slovenia): assessment of potential human health risk due to fish consumption

The study, which measured the concentrations of Hg, Pb, Cd, Zn and As in various fish tissues (muscle, gill and liver) of 10 fish species (Abramis brama danubii, Alburnus alburnus alburnus, Barbus meridionalis petenyi, Carassius auratius gibelio, Cyprinus carpio, Lepomis gibossus, Leuciscius cephalus cephalus, Perca fluviatilis fluviatilis, Rutilus rutilus, Scardinus erythrophtlalmus erythrophtlalmus) collected in the Šalek lakes, is the first survey regarding metal concentrations in fish species with samples originating from Slovene lakes, while only a limited number of such studies have been carried out in southeastern Europe. Since these lakes are situated in the close vicinity of the largest Slovene thermal power plant, the study provides an insight into the potential impact of increased levels of metals in the environment as well as an estimate of the contamination of fish tissues with metals. Furthermore, it was possible to compare the results obtained with those from other studies regarding metal levels in freshwater fish species. The mean metal concentrations of different tissues irrespective of species varied in the following ranges: Zn 4.31–199 mg/kg ww, Pb 0.01–0.48 mg/kg ww, As 0.02–0.44 mg/kg ww, Hg <0.01–0.31 mg/kg ww, Cd < 0.01–0.19 mg/kg ww. In general, higher contents of Hg were found in muscles and livers than in gills and higher contents of As in gills and livers than in muscles, respectively. The accumulation of Pb and Zn was most pronounced in gills. The result obtained regarding metal concentrations in fish revealed that the ecosystems of the Šalek lakes are not polluted with Hg and Pb, slightly loaded with As and Cd and moderately polluted with Zn. In addition, the potential human health risk due to fish consumption was assessed. This showed that the estimated weekly intakes for all metals were far below provisional permissible tolerable weekly intakes determined by WHO/FAO. The consumption of fish from the Šalek lakes, therefore, does not pose a risk to human health.     

Chemometric application in identifying sources of organic contaminants in Langat river basin

Increasing urbanization and changes in land use in Langat river basin lead to adverse impacts on the environment compartment. One of the major challenges is in identifying sources of organic contaminants. This study presented the application of selected chemometric techniques: cluster analysis (CA), discriminant analysis (DA), and principal component analysis (PCA) to classify the pollution sources in Langat river basin based on the analysis of water and sediment samples collected from 24 stations, monitored for 14 organic contaminants from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), sterols, and pesticides groups. The CA and DA enabled to group 24 monitoring sites into three groups of pollution source (industry and urban socioeconomic, agricultural activity, and urban/domestic sewage) with five major discriminating variables: naphthalene, pyrene, benzo[a]pyrene, coprostanol, and cholesterol. PCA analysis, applied to water data sets, resulted in four latent factors explaining 79.0% of the total variance while sediment samples gave five latent factors with 77.6% explained variance. The varifactors (VFs) obtained from PCA indicated that sterols (coprostanol, cholesterol, stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, and stigmastanol) are strongly correlated to domestic and urban sewage, PAHs (naphthalene, acenaphthene, pyrene, benzo[a]anthracene, and benzo[a]pyrene) from industrial and urban activities and chlorpyrifos correlated to samples nearby agricultural sites. The results demonstrated that chemometric techniques can be used for rapid assessment of water and sediment contaminations.     

Impact of anthropogenic activities on physico-chemical parameters of water and mineral uptake in Catla catla from river Ravi, Pakistan

The river Ravi, while passing through Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan, gets highly polluted owning heavy loads of untreated municipal sewage and industrial effluents of diverse kinds. The fish, Catla catla sampled in two different seasons from three downstream polluted sites were compared with the samples of the same fish from an upstream, a less polluted site, for their physico-chemical parameters. The data were statistically analysed to study the effect of sites, seasons and their interaction on the physico-chemical parameters of waters and mineral uptake in fish muscles. Significant differences (P?<?0.001) among the sampling sites and seasons were observed. The river appeared to be polluted as indicated by the high values of total suspended solids (909 mg/l) and sulphate (964 mg/l) in comparison to the respective values of 150 and 600 mg/l being suggested as the safer values of drinking water of the National Environmental Quality Standards. Most trace and macro elements in fish muscles were increased with the increasing pollution loads from the upstream to the downstream sites of this river. The remarkable increases in the levels of all the investigated minerals in fish muscles from the polluted sites raise concerns about the long-term health of the river Ravi ecosystem and consequently the fish and its consumer’s health. The results contradict the opinion of the local population that the riverine fish are natural, more health-promoting and precious than the pond fish. Therefore, we strongly argue for the utilization of an effect-based monitoring approach to alleviate the detrimental effects of anthropogenic activities on fish and the fish consumers’ health.     

Multivariate statistical techniques for the assessment of seasonal variations in surface water quality of pasture ecosystems

This study investigates the applicability of multivariate statistical techniques including cluster analysis (CA), discriminant analysis (DA), and factor analysis (FA) for the assessment of seasonal variations in the surface water quality of tropical pastures. The study was carried out in the TPU catchment, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The dataset consisted of 1-year monitoring of 14 parameters at six sampling sites. The CA yielded two groups of similarity between the sampling sites, i.e., less polluted (LP) and moderately polluted (MP) at temporal scale. Fecal coliform (FC), NO₃, DO, and pH were significantly related to the stream grouping in the dry season, whereas NH₃, BOD, Escherichia coli, and FC were significantly related to the stream grouping in the rainy season. The best predictors for distinguishing clusters in temporal scale were FC, NH₃, and E. coli, respectively. FC, E. coli, and BOD with strong positive loadings were introduced as the first varifactors in the dry season which indicates the biological source of variability. EC with a strong positive loading and DO with a strong negative loading were introduced as the first varifactors in the rainy season, which represents the physiochemical source of variability. Multivariate statistical techniques were effective analytical techniques for classification and processing of large datasets of water quality and the identification of major sources of water pollution in tropical pastures.     

Monitoring the impact of urban effluents on mineral contents of water and sediments of four sites of the river Ravi, Lahore

We assessed the impact of urban effluents on the concentrations of selected minerals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Pb, Zn, Mn, Ni, and Hg) in river Ravi before and after its passage through Lahore city. Water and sediment samples were collected from three lowly to highly polluted downstream sites (Shahdera (B), Sunder (C), and Balloki (D)) alongside the least polluted upstream site (Siphon (A)) during high and low river flow seasons. All the mineral concentrations increased up to site C but stabilized at site D, showing some recovery as compared to the third sampling site. The trend of mean mineral concentration was significantly higher during the low than the high flow season at all the sites. The mean Hg concentrations approached 0.14 and 0.12 mg/l at site A which increased (%) up to 107 and 25 % at site B, 1,700 and 1,317 % at site C, and 1,185 and 1,177 % at site D during low and high river flows, respectively. All mineral concentrations were much higher in the sediment than the water samples. Mean Cd (917 %), Cr (461 %), Cu (300 %), Fe (254 %), Pb (179 %), Zn (170 %), Mn (723 %), Ni (853 %), and Hg (1,699 %) concentrations were higher in riverbed sediments sampled from site C in comparison with the sample collected at site A during low flow season. The domestic and industrial discharges from Lahore city have created undesirable water qualities during the low river flow season. As majority of the mineral levels in the river Ravi were higher than the permissible and safe levels, this is of immediate concern for riverine fish consumers and the users of water for recreation and even irrigation. The use of these waters may pose health risks, and therefore, urgent intervention strategies are needed to minimize river water pollution and its impact on fish-consuming communities of this study area and beyond.