Search results for " pollutant"
showing 10 items of 1149 documents
RADIONUCLIDE CONCENTRATIONS IN AIR PARTICULATE AT PALERMO (ITALY) FOLLOWING FUKUSHIMA ACCIDENT
2012
Following the Fukushima accident, a series of samplings were carried out with a daily frequency to detect the arrival of radioactive contamination in air at Palermo (Italy) and to follow its evolution during the time. Air particulate collection was performed by suction of atmospheric air through cellulose filter paper by means of a high-volume air sampler (∼15 000 m(3) d(-1)). Spectrometric analysis of the filters highlights the presence of (131)I, (134)Cs, (137)Cs and, only for a few samples, traces of (132)Te-(132)I and (136)Cs. Maximum airborne concentrations were 883 μBq m(-3) for (131)I (only particulate), 81 μBq m(-3) for (137)Cs and 70 μBq m(-3) for (134)Cs. From a dose to population…
Use of atropine-treated Daphnia magna survival for detection of environmental contamination by acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.
2003
The toxicity of cholinesterase-inhibiting compounds (e.g., carbamates and organophosphates) is due to a decrease in acetylcholine metabolism, which results in a continuous stimulation of cholinergic receptors (muscarinic and nicotinic) that can be fatal. The goal of this study was to evaluate the protective effect of atropine (muscarinic receptor antagonist) against paraoxon-induced toxicity to Daphnia magna using its survival rate for the detection of environmental contamination by cholinesterase-inhibiting compounds. As expected, paraoxon was lethal to D. magna in a concentration-dependent manner. Noteworthy, the pretreatment of these organisms with atropine dramatically increased their s…
Bioaccumulation of hepatotoxins : A considerable risk in the Latvian environment
2014
Abstract The Gulf of Riga, river Daugava and several interconnected lakes around the City of Riga, Latvia, form a dynamic brackish-freshwater system favouring occurrence of toxic cyanobacteria. We examined bioaccumulation of microcystins and nodularin-R in aquatic organisms in Latvian lakes, the Gulf of Riga and west coast of open Baltic Sea in 2002–2007. The freshwater unionids accumulated toxins efficiently, followed by snails. In contrast, Dreissena polymorpha and most lake fishes (except roach) accumulated much less hepatotoxins. Significant nodularin-R concentrations were detected also in marine clams and flounders. No transfer of nodularin-R and microcystins between lake and brackish …
Assessing the effectiveness of Byssochlamys nivea and Scopulariopsis brumptii in pentachlorophenol removal and biological control of two Phytophthora…
2016
Bioremediation and biological-control by fungi have made tremendous strides in numerous biotechnology applications. The aim of this study was to test Byssochlamys nivea and Scopulariopsis brumptii in sensitivity and degradation to pentachlorophenol (PCP) and in biological-control of Phytophthora cinnamomi and Phytophthora cambivora. B. nivea and S. brumptii were tested in PCP sensitivity and degradation in microbiological media while the experiments of biological-control were carried out in microbiological media and soil. The fungal strains showed low PCP sensitivity at 12.5 and 25 mg PCP L(-1) although the hyphal size, fungal mat, patulin, and spore production decreased with increasing PCP…
Avoidance of Cu- and Zn-contaminated soil by three ecologically different earthworm species
2005
Earthworm avoidance response to soils contaminated with harmful substances has been proposed as a potential tool for assessing soil toxicity with low test effort. In the present study, the objective was to find out whether three ecologically different earthworm species, Aporrectodea tuberculata (Eisen), Lumbricus rubellus (Hoffmeister), and Dendrobaena octaedra (Savigny), avoid soils simultaneously spiked with Cu and Zn. In addition, metal-contaminated field soil taken close to a Cu-Ni smelter was tested with A. tuberculata using a two-section avoidance lest procedure. All three earthworm species clearly avoided Cu/Zn contaminated soil but differently: D. octaedra was the most sensitive spe…
Effects of microplastics on the functional traits of aquatic benthic organisms: A global-scale meta-analysis
2021
Microplastics are widespread in the aquatic environment and thus available for many organisms at different trophic levels. Many scientific papers focus their attention on the study of the effects of microplastics on different species at individual level. Here we performed a global scale meta-analysis focusing our work on the study of the effect of microplastics on the functional traits of aquatic benthic organisms. Overall, microplastics showed a moderate negative effect on the examined functional traits of benthic organisms. Our results show that some crucial functional traits, such as those linked to behaviour and feeding, appear to be unaffected by microplastics. In contrast, traits rela…
Bibliometric analysis of European publications between 2001 and 2016 on concentrations of selected elements in mushrooms.
2020
This article presents a bibliometric study of 200 European publications released between 2001 and 2016, about the contamination of mushrooms by selected elements. The analysis includes figures on the type of analyte, its concentration, the species of fungi, and its country of origin. In the literature review, 492 species of mushrooms (wild-growing and cultured) found in 26 European countries and their concentration of 74 associated elements were analysed. The papers, which dealt mainly with the heavy metal (Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, and Zn) concentrations of mushrooms, primarily came from Turkey, Poland, Spain, and the Czech Republic. More than 50% of the publications provided data about edible mushr…
Removal of pharmaceuticals from municipal wastewaters at laboratory scale by treatment with activated sludge and biostimulation.
2017
Abstract Municipal wastewater containing 21 pharmaceutical compounds, as well as activated sludge obtained from the aeration tank of the same wastewater treatment plant were used in lab-scale biodegradation experiments. The concentrations of pharmaceutical compounds were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry and ranged from 13.2 ng/L to 51.8 μg/L. Activated sludge was characterized in the terms of phylogenetic and catabolic diversity of microbial community, as well as its morphology. Proteobacteria (24.0%) represented the most abundant phylum, followed by Bacteroidetes (19.8%) and Firmicutes (13.2%). Bioaugmentation of was…
The role of nutrients in the biodegradation of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene in liquid and soil.
2011
The widely used explosive 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) has residues that are potentially explosive, toxic, and mutagenic. TNT and other explosives can be degraded by microorganisms; however, biostimulation is needed for process efficiency. To investigate the effectiveness of using biostimulation to degrade TNT, we added varying concentrations of a nutrient amendment consisting of inorganic salts, plant extracts, and molasses to soil and liquid media. For the inoculum we used a consortium of bacteria AM 06 that had exhibited the ability to degrade TNT and which had been previously isolated from explosives-contaminated soils. Phylogenetically, the clones clustered into seven different genera: …
Evidence for shifts in the structure and abundance of the microbial community in a long-term PCB-contaminated soil under bioremediation.
2011
International audience; Although the impact of bioremediation of PCB-contaminated sites on the indigenous microbial community is a key question for soil restoration, it remains poorly understood. Therefore, a small-scale bioremediation assay made of (a) a biostimulation treatment with carvone, soya lecithin and xylose and (b) two bioaugmentation treatments, one with a TSZ7 mixed culture and another with a Rhodococcus sp. Z6 pure strain was set up. Changes in the structure of the global soil microbial community and in the abundances of different taxonomic phyla were monitored using ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA) and real-time PCR. After an 18-month treatment, the structure of th…