Search results for "Ecological risk"
showing 6 items of 16 documents
Prospects for combining chemical and biological methods for integrated environmental assessment
2009
Abstract Inherently interdisciplinary, environmental assessment applied to contamination is evolving rapidly, despite associated uncertainties in methodologies and data limitations. Mixtures of known and unknown pollutants can cause toxic effects in the environment. Besides deploying a chemicals-driven strategy for the ecological risk assessment of the pollutants, it is necessary to apply and to explore biological strategies. Consequently, bioassays, biosensors and effect-directed analysis (EDA) to identify pollutants responsible of particular effects have become increasingly important. We give a broad overview of how to assess biological monitoring of ecosystems and chemical monitoring of …
Combination of contamination indices and ecological risk assessment index for evaluation of pollution level in sediments
2021
Abstract Sediments act as the key storehouse of heavy metals (HMs) and play a vital function in the transport and potential discharge of HMs. Lower basins and agricultural areas are frequently inundated with various pollutants from different origins, which are categorized as constant, bioaccumulative, and unsafe pollutants. Moreover, the unrestricted development of urban and rural parts of developing countries has a great influence on water quality and ultimately on sediments. The human contributions to HM pollution and allied ecological and health risks are discussed in this chapter. Also in this chapter, details of the single pollution indices and multiple pollution indices are described.…
Ecological risk assessment of agricultural soils for the definition of soil screening values: A comparison between substance-based and matrix-based a…
2017
The Italian legislation on contaminated soils does not include the Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) and this deficiency has important consequences for the sustainable management of agricultural soils. The present research compares the results of two ERA procedures applied to agriculture (i) one based on the “substance-based” approach and (ii) a second based on the “matrix-based” approach. In the former the soil screening values (SVs) for individual substances were derived according to institutional foreign guidelines. In the latter, the SVs characterizing the whole-matrix were derived originally by the authors by means of experimental activity.\ud \ud \ud The results indicate that the “matr…
Influence of Temperature on Characteristics of Particulate Matter and Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals during Sewage Sludge Pyrolysis
2021
The formation process of Particulate Matter (PM) during sludge pyrolysis at different temperatures (300–700 °C) and the ecological risks of heavy metals were studied. The results showed that the particulate matter is mainly condensed on the quartz film in a carbon-based organic matter when the pyrolysis temperature was between 200–500 °C in a volatilization process. Inorganic particles was found in the particulate matter when the temperature was raised to 500–700 °C in a decomposition stage. Heavy metals were enriched in particulate matter with increase in pyrolysis temperature. When the temperature reached 700 °C, the concentration of Pb and Cd in the particulate matter significantly incre…
Ecological risk assessment of pesticides in the Mijares River (eastern Spain) impacted by citrus production using wide-scope screening and target qua…
2021
The widespread use of pesticides, especially in agricultural areas, makes necessary to control their presence in surrounding surface waters. The current study was designed to investigate the occurrence and ecological risks of pesticides and their transformation products in a Mediterranean river basin impacted by citrus agricultural production. Nineteen sites were monitored in three campaigns distributed over three different seasons. After a qualitative screening, 24 compounds was selected for subsequent quantitative analysis. As expected, the lower section of the river was most contaminated, with total concentration >5 µg/L in two sites near to the discharge area of wastewater treatment pla…
Addressing ecological effects of radiation on populations and ecosystems to improve protection of the environment against radiation : agreed statemen…
2016
This paper reports the output of a consensus symposium organized by the International Union of Radioecology in November 2015. The symposium gathered an academically diverse group of 30 scientists to consider the still debated ecological impact of radiation on populations and ecosystems. Stimulated by the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters' accidental contamination of the environment, there is increasing interest in developing environmental radiation protection frameworks. Scientific research conducted in a variety of laboratory and field settings has improved our knowledge of the effects of ionizing radiation on the environment. However, the results from such studies sometimes appear contrad…