Soil is a complex physical and biological system that provides support, water, nutrients and oxygen to the plants. Apart from these, it acts as a connecting link between inorganic, organic and living components of the ecosystem. In recent years, presence of xenobiotics, alterations in the natural soil environment, application of pesticides/inorganic fertilizers, percolation of contaminated surf...

Surface soils from Guiyu, China (an intense e-waste processing center) were analyzed for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and variations in composition of the resident bacterial communities. Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis analysis of bacterial 16S rRNA gene showed that e-waste pollution altered the bacterial community structure by promoting changes in species composition and specie...

Humanity is degrading multiple ecosystem services, potentially irreversibly. Two of the most important human impacts are excess agricultural nutrient loading in our fresh and estuarine waters and excess carbon dioxide in our oceans and atmosphere. Large-scale global intervention is required to slow, halt, and eventually reverse these stresses. Cultivating attached polyculture algae within contr...

To avoid the problem of groundwater contamination, mitigation techniques have been proposed that consist of creating barriers made of suitable materials that can facilitate the adsorption and degradation of the pollutants. This study aims at evaluating the capacity of two organo-clays (Dellite 67 G and Dellite 43 B) and one nanosponge to adsorb the herbicide, triclopyr. Triclopyr was chosen bec...

2,7-Dichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (DCDD) was found to evaporate easily with water vapor from a heated solution. Steam distillation was also effective for the removal of DCDD from DCDD-applied soil; its concentration (250 microg/50g soil) in the original soil decreased to less than 5% after steam distillation for only 20 min. Actual dioxin-polluted soil in Tokorozawa City was partially decontaminated...

Influence of nonflooding controlled irrigation (NFI) on solubility and leaching risk of soil organic carbon (SOC) were investigated. Compared with flooding irrigation (FI) paddies, soil water extractable organic carbon (WEOC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in NFI paddies increased in surface soil but decreased in deep soil. The DOC leaching loss in NFI field was 63.3 kg C ha⁻¹, reduced by 4...

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...

Selenium (Se) in irrigation drainage water became a major concern after it was implicated in deaths and deformities of waterfowl at Kesterson Reservoir (Presser and Ohlendorf 1987; Ohlendorf 1989). Subsequently, other areas with irrigationinduced Se problems (or potential problems) have been identified in several western U.S. states (Seiler 1995), reinforcing the status of Se as a U.S. Environm...

Environmental pollutants have received considerable attention due to their serious effects on human health. There are physical, chemical, and biological means to remediate pollution; among them, bioremediation has become increasingly popular. The nitrogen-fixing rhizobia are widely distributed in the soil and root ecosystems and can increase legume growth and production by supplying nitrogen, r...

After 150 years of industrial activity, significant pollution of surface soils in private gardens and locally produced vegetables with lead, cadmium, and arsenic has recently been observed in Viviez (Southern France). A public health intervention was conducted in 2008 to identify individual health risks of Viviez inhabitants and to analyze their environmental exposure to these pollutants. Child...