The determination of the resilience of benthic assemblages is a capital issue for the off-shore aquaculture industry in its attempts to minimize environmental disturbances. Experimental studies are an important tool for the establishment of thresholds for macrofaunal assemblages inhabiting sandy seabeds. An experiment was conducted with three treatments (Control, 1x and 3x), in which organic lo...

The presented contribution reviews actual status of biogas production in the European countries with a focus on the Slovak municipal WWTPs. In 49 monitored Slovak WWTPs (out of 520) the anaerobic digestion with biogas production is operated. The total volume of digestion tanks is about 195 000 m3 but the total daily biogas production is only approx. 55 000 m3 d–1. From a technological point of ...

The research investigated the production of Biohythane in a two-phase anaerobic digestion process treating food waste as substrate. Preliminary batch assays were carried out at initial organic loadings of 15, 20, 25 and 30 kg TVS m -3 , in stirred 1.5-l reactors at 55 °C. The results showed all hydrogen was produced within the first 24 hours after feeding and the highest load tested gave the ma...

Using a box-sampler, surface and core sediment samples were collected from the Bohai and Yellow Seas in 1998e1999. The sediments were sequentially extracted to determine six phosphorus fractions, and non-sequentially extracted for total P (TP) and inorganic P (IP), where the difference between TP and IP was assumed to be organic P (OP). It was found that more than 70% of the total P is inorgani...

Climate change is likely to have large effects on the Baltic Sea ecosystem. Simulations indicate 2-4 °C warming and 50-80 % decrease in ice cover by 2100. Precipitation may increase ~30 % in the north, causing increased land runoff of allochthonous organic matter (AOM) and organic pollutants and decreased salinity. Coupled physical-biogeochemical models indicate that, in the south, bottom-water...

The Conowingo Reservoir is situated on the Susquehanna River, immediately upstream of Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States. Sedimentation in the reservoir provides an unintended benefit to the bay by preventing sediments, organic matter, and nutrients from entering the bay. The sediment storage capacity of the reservoir is nearly exhausted, however, and the resulting increas...

Standards of cleanliness in health care continue to attract attention. Effective cleaning requires the input of energy, and microfibre cloths may help in the physical removal of soil. The ability of these cloths to remove organic soil (measured by ATP) and bacteria was compared with paper towel and a conventional cloth in controlled wet and dry conditions. When used wet on a dry surface, the cl...

Background Leachate is one of the most problems present in landfills, mainly due to large production and the ability to cause serious environmental damages next to these areas. An activated sludge process is commonly used for biodegrading organic contaminants in wastewater using a mixed population of microorganisms. This technology is consolidated for wastewater treatment, and recently has been...

Atmospheric aerosols have been shown to be an important input of organic carbon and nutrients to alpine watersheds and influence biogeochemical processes in these remote settings. For many remote, high elevation watersheds, direct evidence of the sources of water soluble organic aerosols and their chemical and optical characteristics is lacking. Here, we show that the concentration of water sol...

Trace metals (Fe, Mn, Cu, Co, Ni. Pb, Cd and Cr) analyses in particulate matter and sediments were carried out at 16 different stations in the Godavari mangrove ecosystem covering the three regions viz., Kakinada (KKD) bay, Goutami-Godavari estuary (GGE) and Coringa and Gaderu mangrove environments (CGME). Higher concentrations of trace metals in particulate matter and in sediments were noticed...