Nanocopper oxide (nanoCuO) is among the most widely used metal oxide nanoparticles which increases their chance of being released into freshwaters. Fungi are the major microbial decomposers of plant litter in streams. Fungal laccases are multicopper oxidase enzymes that are involved in the degradation of lignin and various xenobiotic compounds. We investigated the effects of nanoCuO (5 levels, ...

The effects of physiological integration on clonal plants growing in aquatic and terrestrial habitats have been extensively studied, but little is known about the role in the extension of amphibious clonal plants in the heterogeneous aquatic-terrestrial ecotones, especially when the water environments are polluted by heavy metals. Ramets of the amphibious clonal herb Alternanthera philoxeroides...

Hipparcos parallaxes and proper motions have made it possible to construct Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagrams of nearby clusters with unprecedented accuracy. The standard deviation of high-fidelity, nonbinary, nonvariable stars about a model stellar evolution isochrone in the Hyades cluster is about 0.04 mag. We use this deviation to estimate an upper limit on the scatter in metallicities in st...

Article history: Received 7 January 2011 Accepted 29 September 2012 Deep convection is an important transport mechanism for aerosol particles, allowing them to be lifted to levels where they are subject to long-range transport from source regions to remote regions. The sensitivity of regional aerosol effects to the rate of entrainment in deep moist convection has been explored in a global model...

Sugar mills plays a major role in polluting the water bodies and land by discharging a large amount of wastewater as effluent. The sugar mill effluents are having higher amount of suspended solids, dissolved solids, BOD, COD, chloride sulphate, nitrates, calcium and magnesium. The continuous use of these effluents harmfully affect the crops when used for irrigation. As a result, a higher amount...

A simple method for detection and enumeration of alkylbenzenesulfonate (ABS)-degrading microorganisms by using agar plates was developed and used in microbiological studies of coastal marine and polluted river waters. The method depends upon the color responses of neutral red in alkaline medium. Neutral red changes from pink, when it enters into ABS micelles, to yellow, when the ABS is degraded...

Trace element concentrations in banded water snakes, Nerodia fasciata, and representative prey items from a site polluted by coal combustion wastes were compared with concentrations in conspecifics from a nearby reference site. Water snakes accumulated high concentrations of trace elements, especially arsenic (As) and selenium (Se), in the polluted habitat. In addition to being exposed to conta...

Spirometric data from 86 primary school children living in an area of air pollution resulting from wire reclamation incineration were analysed and compared with 92 non-exposed schoolchildren. There were lower values for forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume and thus a higher incidence of pulmonary function abnormalities in the children in the polluted area than those in a non-pollu...

Previous laboratory studies and in situ measurements have shown that dust particles possess the ability to nucleate ice crystals, and smoke particles to some extent as well. Even with coatings of pollutants such as sulphate and nitrate on the surface of dust particles, it has been shown that polluted dust particles are still able to nucleate ice in the immersion, deposition, condensation, and c...

Floral hydrocarbons provide essential signals to attract pollinators. As soon as they are emitted to the atmosphere, however, hydrocarbons are destroyed by chemical reactions involving pollutants such as ozone. It is therefore likely that increased air pollution interferes with pollinator attracting hydrocarbon signals. To test this hypothesis, a Lagrangian diffusion model was used to determine...