Concentrations of heavy metals and aquatic macrophytes of Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar an anthropogenic lake affected by coal mining effluent

Five heavy metals Cu, Cd, Mn, Pb and Hg were found in high concentration from three sampling sites located in Asia’s largest anthropogenic lake Govind Ballabh Pant GBP Sagar. Concentrations of these heavy metals were measured in Water, bottom sediment and in different parts of the aquatic macrophytes collected from the reservoir. Plants collected from the lake were Eichhornia crassipes, Azolla pinnata, Lemna minor, Spirodela polyrrhiza, Potamogeton pectinatus, Marsilea quadrifolia, Pistia stratiotes, Ipomea aquqtica, Potamogeton crispus, Hydrilla verticillata and Aponogeton natans. These plants have shown the high concentrations of Cu, Cd, Mn, Pb and Hg in their different parts due to bioaccumulation. In general plant roots exhibited higher concentrations of heavy metals than corresponding sediments. A comparison between different morphological tissues of the sampled plants reveled the metal concentration in following order roots > leaves. Analyses of bottom sediment indicated the higher concentrations of Cd, Mn, Cu and Pb. Strong positive correlations were obtained between the metals in water and in plants as well as between metal in sediment and in plants. Indicating the potential of these plants for pollution monitoring of these metals.     

The removal of moisture and antibiotic resistance genes in dairy manure by microwave treatment

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - To characterize the drying of dairy manure during microwave (MW) heating, and to determine the impacts of microwave radiation on reductions of...     

Quantifying monthly water balance to estimate water deficit in Mayurakshi River basin of Eastern India

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Recorded seasonal variation and uneven distribution of rainfall is one of the major issues to the agrarian society and the domestic water users today....     

Size fractionated speciation of nitrate and sulfate aerosols in a sub-tropical industrial environment

Size fractionated chemical speciation of acidic aerosols were performed for ammonium sulfate, other sulfates, ammonium nitrate and other nitrates in a sub-tropical industrial area, Bina, India during December 2003 to November 2004. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed highly significant temporal variations (p > .001) in the concentrations of nitrate and sulfate aerosols in all the three size fractions (fine, mid-size and coarse). Winter demonstrated utmost concentrations of ammonium sulfate, which ranged from 3.2 to 26.4 microg m(-3) in fine particles and 0.20-0.34 microg m(-3) in coarse particles. Ammonium sulfate was chiefly in fine mode (43.77% of total particulate sulfate) as compared to coarse particles (28.60% of total particulate sulfate). The major fraction Ammonium sulfate existed in different forms in atmospheric aerosols, for example NH4Fe(SO4)2, (NH4)2SO4, (NH4)3H(SO4)2 in fine particles, and (NH4)4(NO3)SO4+ in coarse particles. Other sulfate concentrations were also higher during winter ranging from 1.89 to 14.3 microg m(-3) in fine particles and 0.12-0.65microg m(-3) in coarse particles. Ammonium nitrate constituted the major fraction of total particulate nitrate all through the year and was principally in fine particles (the highest concentration in January i.e. 14.2 microg m(-3)). Other nitrates were mainly distributed in the fine particles (highest concentration in January i.e. 11.2 microg m(-3)) All the sulfate and nitrate species were mainly distributed in fine mode and have significant impact on human health.     

Pillared interlayered clays: sustainable materials for pollution abatement

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Pillared interlayered clays have interesting properties such as high surface area, pore volume and extended pore size, high thermal stability, strong surface...     

Assessment of genetic variation in lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) using protease inhibitor activities and RAPD markers

The aim of the present study is to identify and characterize lucerne lines resistance to weevil infestation. After three years of field screening for resistance to weevil infestation, 13 lines of lucerne were selected to assess the genotypic variations for lucerne weevil (Hypera postica Gyll.) at biochemical and molecular levels. Total phenols varied from 0.15 to 0.91 mg g (DM) in these genotypes. The highest trypsin (11.11 unit mg(-1) protein) and chymotrypsin (93.0 unit mg(-1) protein) inhibitors activities were recorded in G-1-02 and B-4-03 lines respectively, whereas highest alpha-amylases inhibitor activity (14.2 unit mg(-1) protein) in C-6-01. Zymogram patterns for trypsin inhibitor activity showed quantitative variations among the lines. In total 262 DNA fragments were generated when 45 deca-mer random primers were employed. Genetic variation in terms of genetic distance ranged from 0.65 to 0.85. Sequential Agglomerative Hierarchical and Nested (SAHN) clustering using the Un-weighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean (UPGMA) algorithm yielded two clusters (cluster I and II) which converged at 72% similarity level. Cluster I contained most of the lines having low level of weevil infestation. High bootstrap values (>40) indicated the significance of nodes embodied in these two clusters. However, SDS-PAGE analysis of the leaf proteins of these 13 lines showed no major variations except minor difference in the protein bands of molecular weights between 14 to 20 kD.     

Potential and future prospects of biochar-based materials and their applications in removal of organic contaminants from industrial wastewater

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Various paper, oil, leather and textile industries generates a large amount of aromatic recalcitrant organic pollutants and release them into the...     

Resource recovery through bioremediation of wastewaters and waste carbon by microalgae: a circular bioeconomy approach

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Microalgal biomass–based biofuels are a promising alternative to fossil fuels. Microalgal biofuels’ major obstacles are the water and...     

Assessment of Uncertainties in Modelling Land Use Change with an Integrated Cellular Automata–Markov Chain Model

Environmental Modeling & Assessment - Uncertainty in future land use change modelling is crucial to study as it may result in varying spatial characteristics and features of the model. An...