Search results for "micropollutants"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
Combined effects of heatwaves and micropollutants on freshwater ecosystems: Towards an integrated assessment of extreme events in multiple stressors …
2022
Freshwater ecosystems are strongly influenced by weather extremes such as heatwaves, which are predicted to increase in frequency and magnitude in the future. In addition to these climate extremes, the freshwater realm is impacted by the exposure to various classes of chemicals emitted by anthropogenic activities. Currently, there is limited knowledge on how the combined exposure to heatwaves and chemicals affects the structure and functioning of freshwater ecosystems. Here, we review the available literature describing the single and combined effects of heatwaves and chemicals on different levels of biological organization, to obtain a holistic view of their potential interactive effects. …
Characterization of the contamination fingerprint of wastewater treatment plant effluents in the Henares River Basin (central Spain) based on target …
2022
The interest in contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) has increased lately due to their continued emission and potential ecotoxicological hazards. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are generally not capable of eliminating them and are considered the main pathway for CECs to the aquatic environment. The number of CECs in WWTPs effluents is often so large that complementary approaches to the conventional target analysis need to be implemented. Within this context, multitarget quantitative analysis (162 compounds) and a suspect screening (>40,000 suspects) approaches were applied to characterize the CEC fingerprint in effluents of five WWTPs in the Henares River basin (central Spain) durin…
Simplified model to evaluate the fate of micropollutants in an integrated urban drainage system: sensitivity analysis
2016
The paper presents the sensitivity analysis of an integrated urban water quality system by means of the global sensitivity analysis (GSA). Specifically, an home-made integrated model developed in previous studies has been modified in order to include the micropollutant assessment (namely, sulfamethoxazole - SMX). The model takes into account also the interactions between the three components of the system: sewer system (SS), wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and the receiving water body (RWB). The analysis has been applied to an experimental catchment nearby Palermo (Italy): the Nocella catchment. Five scenarios each characterized by different combinations of sub-systems (i.e., SS, WWTP and…
Occurrence and transformation of illicit drugs in wastewater treatment plants.
2016
Illicit drugs (IDs) and their metabolites have been recently recognized as a new group of water emerging contaminants (ECs) with potent psychoactive properties and unknown effects to the aquatic environment (Pal et al., 2013). IDs are excreted via urine and feces and arrive at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) where can reach ppb levels (Castiglioni et al., 2006). Over the past few years, it has been demonstrated that conventional biological processes in WWTPs are not or scarcely able to remove IDs. Thus, they are discharged into water bodies through the treated effluent (Postigo et al., 2011). Therefore, monitoring the IDs concentration in WWTPs can have a twofold advantage: i. increase …
Environmental context determines pollution impacts on ecosystem functioning
2023
Global change assessments have typically ignored synthetic chemical pollution, despite the rapid increase of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and industrial chemicals in the environment. Part of the problem reflects the multifarious origins of these micropollutants, which can derive from urban and agricultural sources. Understanding how micropollutants harm ecosystems is a major scientific challenge due to asymmetries of stress across trophic levels and ecological surprises generated by multiple drivers interacting in human-impacted landscapes. We used field assays above and below municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in 60 sampling locations across 20 Swiss streams to test how micropoll…
Environmental remediation using nanomaterial as adsorbents for emerging micropollutants
2023
Water shortage and scarcity are issues of global concern. Water pollution caused by organic micropollutants further aggravates the problem, by rendering an already scarce resource unfit for human consumption. The existing conventional wastewater treatment methods and infrastructure were not designed to eliminate micropollutants. Therefore, their inefficiencies call for modern methods for removing emerging micropollutant residues such as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDCs), personal care products and pesticides. The use of nanomaterials, for the abatement of micropollutants in water is gaining traction in recent years, due to the abundance of susta…