Crude oil and petroleum products are widespread water and soil pollutants resulting from marine and terrestrial spillages. International statistics of oil spill sizes for all incidents indicate that the majority of oil spills are small (less than 7 tonnes). The major accidents that happen in the oil industry contribute only a small fraction of the total oil which enters the environment. However...

Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living soil nematode that is commonly used as a model for toxicity tests. The aim of this study was to investigate the toxicity of seven organic pollutants: four azaarenes (quinoline, acridine, phenazine, and 1,10-phenanthroline), short-chain chlorinated paraffins, and two organochlorinated pesticides (toxaphene and hexachlorobenzene). The exposure to all chemic...

Biomass allocation is an important plant trait that responds plastically to environmental heterogeneities. However, the effects on this trait of pollutants owing to human activities remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the response of biomass allocation of Phragmites australis to petroleum pollution by a ¹³CO₂ pulse-labelling technique. Our data show that plant biomass signifi...

Among all the aromatic compounds phenol is the major constituent of soil contaminated form many industries. Toxicity of phenol is well recognized for human as well as environment. In future, microbial system is the potential tool to deal with environmental pollutants like phenol. In the present study, an aerobic bacterial culture was isolated from oil contaminated soil by enrichment technique a...

A bacterium capable of metabolizing endosulfan (6,7,8,9,10,10-hexachloro-1,5,5a,6,9,9a-hexahydro-6,9-methano-2,4,3-benzodioxathiepine3-oxide) was isolated from cotton-growing soil and effectively shown to degrade endosulfan into endosulfan sulfate. The bacterium degraded 50% of the compound within 3 days of incubation. Endosulfan sulfate was the only terminal product and no other metabolites we...

Electromagnetic induction measurements are often used for non-destructive investigation of certain soil properties, which are affected by the electromagnetic features of the subsurface layers. Knowing such parameters allows one to identify inhomogeneities in the ground, and to ascertain the presence and the spatial position of particular conductive substances, such as metals, liquid pollutants,...

The ~350 km2 water level fluctuation zone (WLFZ) in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) of China, situated at the intersection of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, experiences a great hydrological change with prolonged winter inundation. Soil samples were collected in 12 sites pre- (September 2008) and post submergence (June 2009) in the WLFZ and analyzed for soil nutrients. Self-organizing map ...

Directional variograms, along the soil profile, can be useful and precise tool that can be used to increase the precision of the assessment of soil pollution. The detail analysis of spatial variability in the soil profile can be also an important part of the standardization of soil magnetometry as a screening method for an assessment of soil pollution related to the dust deposition. The goal of...

BACKGROUND The positive matrix factorization is a powerful environmental analysis technique which has been successfully utilized to assess air-born particulate matter source contribution. The new version of this model (PMF5) has two additional estimation error methods and some other useful advantages compared to the previous versions. In the present study, the capability of PMF5 for identificat...

Due to its geographical peculiarities, the Republic of Maldives represents a case study of great interest for the investigation of persistent organic pollutants, from both a socio-economic and an ecological perspective. Thus, we conducted a first survey to assess the current status of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (PCDD), polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDF) and dioxin-like polychlorinated bi...