The acidity of mine water generally makes it toxic to most organisms. The gills, kidneys and livers of Anabas testudineus Bloch fish inhabiting the acidic water (pH 2-4) of an unused lignite mine in Li District, Lamphun Province, Thailand were examined and compared to those of farmed fish. Tissue abnormalities were found in all investigated organs. Deterioration and telangiectasia of gill filam...

The German Rhineland is home to the world's largest opencast lignite coal mine and human-made hole e the Hambach mine. Over the last seven years, RWE, the mine operator, has faced an increase in militant resistance, culminating in the occupation of the Hambacher Forest and acts of civil disobedience and sabotage. The mine provides a European case study to examine the repressive techniques deplo...

Standard procedure for dispersing natural soils for particle size fractionation can be too aggressive for soil containing coal and other organic particles from coal industries. We have investigated ultrasonic dispersion for the latter in four soils differing in pedogenesis (Phaeozem, Podzol, reclaimed mine soils), carbon content (27.5±138.6 g kg), clay content (80±153 g kg) and sources of parti...

The Pliocene lignite hypothesis is an environmental hypothesis that has been proposed to explain the etiology of Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN). Aqueous leaching experiments were conducted on a variety of coal samples in order to simulate groundwater leaching of organic compounds, and to further test the role of the Pliocene lignite hypothesis in the etiology of BEN. Experiments were performe...

We describe the first two Blattodea from early Eocene Palana Formation of Gurha opencast lignite mine, western Rajasthan, India. Although it is not possible to attribute them a precise family, these large wings suggest warm and humid paleoclimate for area at that time.

Under the pressure of competition, primarily caused by high price carbon dioxide emission allowances, lignite production in Western Macedonia Lignite Centre dramatically reduced last decade. This development affects ambient air quality greater mine area, as evidenced reducing particulate matter concentrations and number exceedances daily average per year. Moreover, differences measurements moni...

Miscanthus × giganteus is a giant C4 grass native to Asia. Unlike most C4 species, it is relatively cold tolerant due to adaptations across a wide range of altitudes. These grasses are characterized by high productivity and low input requirements, making them excellent candidates for bioenergy feedstock production. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential for growing Miscanthus on...

The thermal characteristics of thar and their alpine habitat (including expanses of bare rock) were determined as a function of time throughout the night, by measurements from imagery acquired with a thermal video camera. Measurements were also made on thar in a farm environment, to determine the radiant temperature difference between their considerably hotter heads and cooler bodies. Thermal i...

In open beef feedlot systems, more than 50% of dietary nitrogen (N) is lost as ammonia (NH3). Here we report an effective and economically-viable method to mitigate NH3 emissions by the application of lignite. We constructed two cattle pens (20 × 20 m) to determine the effectiveness of lignite in reducing NH3 emissions. Twenty-four steers were fed identical commercial rations in each pen. The t...