Surface soils collected from Taizhou, a typical e-waste recycling area in Southeast China, were analyzed for the residues of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) by using microwave-assisted extraction and gas chromatography -mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The total concentrations of 16 PAHs in US EPA's priority list (ΣPAHs),...

Activity of the enzymes can give information on the kind and duration of the effects of pollutants on the metabolic activity of soil. Results of studies on the dehydrogenase activity in soils experimentally contaminated with diesel fuel, with and without modification used in investigation over biodegradation process (including fertilization, stirring and inoculation) were presented in paper. St...

Risk analysis can be used as a scientific tool for addressing the health of ecosystems. Here we describe a protocol for characterizing risks in the ecosystems of several polluted soil scenarios in the Madrid Community (Central Spain). Our starting hypothesis was that to recover the health of degraded ecosystems that could affect public health, an ecotoxicological diagnosis of each site is requi...

Exogenous plasmid isolation was used to assess the presence of mobilizing plasmids in several soils and activated sludges. Triparental matings were performed with Escherichia coli (a member of the gamma subgroup of the Proteobacteria) as the donor of an IncQ plasmid (pMOL155, containing the heavy metal resistance genes czc: Co, Zn, and Cd), Alcaligenes eutrophus (a member of the beta subgroup o...

background & aims of the study: heavy metals contaminate drinking water, air and soils. it is very harmful for humans and other live organisms. phytoremediation is one of the direct bio-remediation methods for heavy metal removal from polluted water and soils. this method is accepted environmentally, economically and aesthetically. the purpose of this study was to assess tamarix hispida capacit...

introduction due to mining, considerable amounts of heavy metal bearing mineralsare scattered in the atmosphere in the form of dust and make the surrounding air, water and soils polluted.runoff water movingfrom the mountainstowardsplains may also transport heavy metals from mines to the soils.one type ofpollutions is contamination withheavy metals.the purpose of the present research has been to...

An incubation experiment was conducted to study the chemical speciation and extractability of three heavy metals in two contrasting biosolids-amended clay soils. One was a paddy soil of pH 7.8 and the other was a red soil of pH 4.7 collected from a fallow field. Anaerobically digested biosolids were mixed with each of the two soils at three rates: 20, 40 and 60 g kg(-1) soil (DM basis), and una...

Harmful elements (Pb, Se, Cd, etc.) in the soil samples were measured by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) method. We investigated the influence of the thickness of soil layer, the grain size of soils, and the water content in soils on XRF intensity. Since high-energy XRF such as Cd K was detected in deep inside of soils, a thickness of 10 mm was recommended. The soil sample with a small grain size gave...