Bacterial Indicators Are Ubiquitous Members of Pelagic Microbiome in Anthropogenically Impacted Coastal Ecosystem

Coastal zones are exposed to various anthropogenic impacts, such as different types of wastewater pollution, e.g., treated wastewater discharges, leakage from sewage systems, and agricultural and urban runoff. These various inputs can introduce allochthonous organic matter and microbes, including pathogens, into the coastal marine environment. The presence of fecal bacterial indicators in the coastal environment is usually monitored using traditional culture-based methods that, however, fail to detect their uncultured representatives. We have conducted a year-around in situ survey of the pelagic microbiome of the dynamic coastal ecosystem, subjected to different anthropogenic pressures to depict the seasonal and spatial dynamics of traditional and alternative fecal bacterial indicators. To provide an insight into the environmental conditions under which bacterial indicators thrive, a suite of environmental factors and bacterial community dynamics were analyzed concurrently. Analyses of 16S rRNA amplicon sequences revealed that the coastal microbiome was primarily structured by seasonal changes regardless of the distance from the wastewater pollution sources. On the other hand, fecal bacterial indicators were not affected by seasons and accounted for up to 34% of the sequence proportion for a given sample. Even more so, traditional fecal indicator bacteria (Enterobacteriaceae) and alternative wastewater-associated bacteria (Lachnospiraceae, Ruminococcaceae, Arcobacteraceae, Pseudomonadaceae and Vibrionaceae) were part of the core coastal microbiome, i.e., present at all sampling stations. Microbial source tracking and Lagrangian particle tracking, which we employed to assess the potential pollution source, revealed the importance of riverine water as a vector for transmission of allochthonous microbes into the marine system. Further phylogenetic analysis showed that the Arcobacteraceae in our data set was affiliated with the pathogenic Arcobacter cryaerophilus, suggesting that a potential exposure risk for bacterial pathogens in anthropogenically impacted coastal zones remains. We emphasize that molecular analyses combined with statistical and oceanographic models may provide new insights for environmental health assessment and reveal the potential source and presence of microbial indicators, which are otherwise overlooked by a cultivation approach.

Functionally modified metal–organic frameworks for the removal of toxic dyes from wastewater

Dye wastewater pollution is a pervasive problem that hinders sustainable development. Adsorption is a particularly important technique for treating dye wastewater because of its low cost, high efficiency, and operational...

Development of an Open Channel That Also Functions as a Wetland to Reduce Domestic Wastewater

Besides accommodating rainfall-runoff, the drainage channel of the Dukuh Menanggal area in Surabaya also accommodates domestic wastewater. The objective of developing the function is to degrade domestic wastewater pollution that flows into the drainage channel. The wetland is applied in the drainage channel with coarse sand media, Caladium (Caladium), and Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes L) plant according to land size planning based on existing discharge, detention time, the porosity of the planting medium, and the root zone of the applied plants. The observed properties of domestic wastewater were Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), and detergents. The result is that the treatment of domestic wastewater passes through the artificial wetland in the drainage channel. The constructed wetland can reduce the contamination content of domestic wastewater for the parameters of BOD, COD, and detergents with efficiency levels of 46%, 61.8%, and 69%, respectively.

Effect of Curing Temperature on the Properties of Latex Based Membrane for Oily Wastewater Filtration

Oily wastewater pollution has always been part of the most serious worldwide environmental disaster. Thus, the treatment of oily wastewater is notably crucial. In this work, nitrile butadiene rubber/graphene oxide (NBR/GO) membranes were fabricated by latex compounding and curing method which is comparatively brand-new technique to produce membranes for wastewater treatment. Therefore, the steps in the production need to be studied to enhance the performance of the membrane. Curing temperature is an important factor in the production of the latex-based membrane. In this paper, the effect of curing temperature in the range of 90 °C – 110 °C on the morphology, tensile properties, permeation flux, and oil rejection rate performance of the membrane was studied. The curing temperature was found to affect the surface morphology and integrity of the membranes which sequentially affects the performance of the membrane in terms of strength, permeation flux, and oil rejection rate. NBR/GO membranes cured at the temperature of 100 °C exhibit the highest flux of 491.84 L/m2.hr with an oil rejection rate of 95.44 %, with the ultimate tensile strength (UTS), elongation break (EB%), and E-Modulus (E-mod) of 34.490 MPa, 1627.11 %, and 1.309 MPa, respectively.

Rapid Assessment Method for Evaluation of the Weighted Contribution of Anthropogenic Pollution: A Case Study of Lake Burullus, Egypt

This paper proposes a pragmatic approach for rapid assessment of the weighted contribution of the main waste streams contributing to pollution of surface water bodies. A case study was conducted on Lake Burullus in Egypt. The lake suffers from pollution due to many human-based activities around the lake, such as domestic, industrial, agriculture, fish farming, and solid wastes. The weighted contribution of these activities was assessed in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP). The results showed that the highest organic load is due to the domestic wastewater pollution component (63.2% of COD load), followed by fish aquaculture (35.4%). The highest TN (43.9%) and TP (58.3%) pollutant loads to Lake Burullus are due to the agricultural pollution component, followed by fish aquaculture with pollutant loads of 28.5% and 25.3%, respectively. The industrial wastewater pollution component has a very small effect on the pollution of Lake Burullus. The assessment of this study will help identify and magnify the key polluters and thus guide the decision-makers to prioritize investment planning for depollution intervention projects. For example, if the target is to reduce COD loads, investments must be directed toward the rehabilitation and expansion of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).

Farm Animal Enclosure Requirements, Industry Concentration, and Supply Chain Dynamics

In this paper, we draw on microeconomic theory to show that farm animal enclosure regulations can and have lead to increased farm-level concentration in affected industries in the U.S. The desirability of this increased concentration is a function of modern industry structures. Farm animal enclosure requirements can push traditional “short” supply chains like eggs toward vertical integration. However, vertically integrated systems (e.g., broiler chickens and hogs) may benefit from the induced farm-level concentration by increasing bargaining power among contract farmers. In all systems, the increased farm-level concentration induced by enclosure requirements may lead to greater ability to solve future collective action problems like wastewater pollution and antimicrobial resistance.

Synergistic Degradation of Methylene Blue By Novel Fe-Co Bimetallic Catalyst Supported On Waste Silica in Photo-Fenton-Like System

The environment is affected by agricultural, domestic, and industrial activities that lead to drastic problems such as global warming and wastewater generation. Wastewater pollution is of public concern, making the treatment of persistent pollutants in water and wastewater highly imperative. Several conventional treatment technologies have been applied to water and wastewater remediation, but each has numerous limitations. To address this issue, treatment using bimetallic systems has been extensively studied. Synergistic effects between the two metals are highly desirable because they usually offer enhanced activity, selectivity, and stability relative to their monometallic counterparts. In this study, a novel method to fabricate bimetallic Fe-Co catalyst supported on waste silica was investigated for the treatment of methylene blue dye as model pollutant. Under the optimum conditions of pHi 3.0, 3.0 mM H2O2, 1.0 g L-1 Fe-Co/SiO2 catalyst, and 20 mg L-1 initial dye concentration, the maximum response for the decoloration and mineralization efficiencies of methylene blue were 100% and 64.57%, respectively. Superoxide radical was unveiled to be the dominant reactive oxygen species in the photo-Fenton-like system over Fe-Co/SiO2 catalyst. Compared to the contrastive catalyst, the Fe-Co/SiO2 synthesized using fluidized-bed crystallization exhibited comparable decoloration and mineralization efficiencies, and relatively lower metal leaching.

Utilization of wastewater pollution in plant growth biostimulants

The Voronezh Region is a highly developed agro-industrial complex that exerts a burden on the environment. The article deals with the disposal of wastewater pollution with the production of technological products. The aim of the study was to create a biostimulator of plant growth from the waste water of a meat processing plant by enzymatic hydrolysis with the addition of 5% of a consortium of microorganisms from the intestines of pigs and to study its properties on the seeds of Scots pine. The resulting hydrolysates have a high biological value with a complete amino acid composition. The biostimulator contains 92.52% amino acids. Identification of growth stimulation of seed sowing qualities was determined in the laboratory. The results of the experiment show that in the control sample, the seeds were soaked with distilled water, the germination energy was 71.3%, and the laboratory germination rate was 82%. When studying the prototype impregnated with a biostimulator, the germination indicators were: germination energy 85.3%, germination 93.3%. The resulting amino acid biostimulator increased the shelf life of seeds by 11.3%. The biostimulator helped to increase the quality class of seeds, which allows to reduce the seeding rate per unit area during sowing and reduce costs.