Search results for " Pollution"
showing 10 items of 1010 documents
Origin of atmospheric lead in Johannesburg, South Africa
2006
International audience; The origin of lead in the atmosphere of Johannesburg, South Africa was investigated on the basis of elemental and lead isotopic analyses of coals, mine dumps, gasoline, and about 30 epiphytic lichen samples. Lead predominantly comes from automotive exhausts in urban and suburban areas, as leaded antiknock additives were still in use in South Africa at the time of the study. Although dust emissions from the numerous mine-tailing dumps were expected to contribute significantly to the heavy metal budget, the southern townships that are surrounded by the dumps (such as Soweto and other historically Black residential areas) do not appear to be more than partially influenc…
Air Quality during New Year’s Eve: A Biomonitoring Study with Moss
2021
Mosses are one of the best bioindicators in the assessment of atmospheric aerosol pollution by heavy metals. Studies using mosses allow both short- and long-term air quality monitoring. The increasing contamination of the environment (including air) is causing a search for new, cheap and effective methods of monitoring its condition. Once such method is the use of mosses in active biomonitoring. The aim of the study was to assess the atmospheric aerosol pollution with selected heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb) from the smoke of fireworks used during New Year’s Eve in the years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. In studies a biomonitoring moss-bag method with moss Pleurozium schreberi (Willd. e…
In situ, satellite measurement and model evidence on the dominant regional contribution to fine particulate matter levels in the Paris megacity
2015
International audience; Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 9578 M. Beekmann et al.: Evidence for a dominant regional contribution to fine particulate matter levels Abstract. A detailed characterization of air quality in the megacity of Paris (France) during two 1-month intensive campaigns and from additional 1-year observations revealed that about 70 % of the urban background fine particulate matter (PM) is transported on average into the megacity from upwind regions. This dominant influence of regional sources was confirmed by in situ measurements during short intensive and longer-term campaigns, aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements from E…
Pollution patterns in the upper troposphere over Europe and Asia observed by CARIBIC
2014
Abstract Between May 2005 and March 2008 the CARIBIC (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container) observatory was deployed to make atmospheric observations on 42 flights between Frankfurt, Germany and Manila, the Philippines. This nearly 3 year flight series provides information about atmospheric composition in the upper troposphere over Europe and Asia during all seasons and was used to investigate seasonal and regional differences in trace gas distributions and the influence of long range transport and local convection on composition. The flight route was separated into three different regions having characteristic differences in transp…
Overview: On the transport and transformation of pollutants in the outflow of major population centres - Observational data from the EMeRGe European …
2022
Megacities and other major population centres (MPCs) worldwide are major sources of air pollution, both locally as well as downwind. The overall assessment and prediction of the impact of MPC pollution on tropospheric chemistry are challenging. The present work provides an overview of the highlights of a major new contribution to the understanding of this issue based on the data and analysis of the EMeRGe (Effect of Megacities on the transport and transformation of pollutants on the Regional to Global scales) international project. EMeRGe focuses on atmospheric chemistry, dynamics, and transport of local and regional pollution originating in MPCs. Airborne measurements, taking advantage of …
Receiving water body quality assessment: an integrated mathematical approach applied to an Italian case study
2011
This study presents a basin-scale approach to the analysis of receiving water body quality considering both point and non-point pollution sources. In particular, this paper describes an extensive data gathering campaign carried out in the Nocella catchment, which is an agricultural and semi-urbanised basin located in Sicily, Italy. Two sewer systems, two wastewater treatment plants and a river reach were monitored during both dry and wet weather periods. A mathematical model of the entire integrated system was also created. Specifically, a detailed modelling approach was developed by employing three well known models: Storm Water Management Model, GPS-X and Soil and Water Assessment Tool. T…
A more cost-effective geomatic approach to modelling PM10 dispersion across Europe
2014
International audience; PM10 concentrations in most major European cities exceed the limits set by the European Directive and are expected to continue to do so in the coming years. Moreover, PM10s can be transported over long distances impacting air quality, public health and ecosystem functionality far from their sources of emission. Modelling remains one of the only options for tracking PM10 deposition in remote areas with no monitoring stations. Even so, air pollution models based on atmospheric physics usually imply substantial economic, logistical and computational investment. In this work, we present a new geomatic approach to modelling mean annual PM10 concentrations across Europe. O…
Handbook of Metal-Microbe Interactions and Bioremediation
2017
Around the World, metal pollution is a major problem. Conventional practices of toxic metal removal can be ineffective and/or expensive, delaying and exacerbating the crisis. Those communities dealing with contamination must be aware of the fundamentals advances of microbe-mediated metal removal practices because these methods can be easily used and require less remedial intervention. This book describes innovations and efficient applications for metal bioremediation for environments polluted by metal contaminates.
Perturbation vectors to evaluate air quality using lichens and bromeliads: a Brazilian case study.
2017
10 pages; International audience; Samples of one lichen species, Parmotrema crinitum, and one bromeliad species, Tillandsia usneoides, were collected in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at four sites differently affected by anthropogenic pollution. The concentrations of aluminum, cadmium, copper, iron, lanthanum, lead, sulfur, titanium, zinc, and zirconium were determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. The environmental diagnosis was established by examining compositional changes via perturbation vectors, an underused family of methods designed to circumvent the problem of closure in any compositional dataset. The perturbation vectors between the reference s…
The influence of preparation methodology on the concentrations of heavy metals in Pleurozium schreberi moss samples prior to use in active biomonitor…
2020
AbstractActive biomonitoring is used to assess environmental pollution of elements such as heavy metals by indicator species such as mosses. They are used, among others, in urbanized areas where no indicator species are found. In such study areas, mosses collected from sites considered to be ecologically clean shall be exposed. In this context, it is very important to prepare the mosses properly before the exposure, so that the information received about the condition of the environment is reliable. In 2018, studies were conducted in the forested areas of southern Poland—in Opolskie Province. Pleurozium schreberi mosses were used in these studies. Atomic absorption spectrometry with flame a…