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Topic Review
Effects of Environmental Changes in the Amazon Region
Environmental changes caused by human activities alter the water, energy, and carbon cycles in the Amazon region. This has resulted in biological changes across several plant species, some of which are used in both regional and global trade and represent important sources of food and income for people. Reports from local people and scientific studies point to the effects of deforestation, forest degradation, and climate change on native plant species. Indeed, people who are typically dependent on natural resources and ecosystem services are the most threatened by plant species productivity and geographical distribution changes. However, there is a lack of scientific literature concerning the effects of environmental changes on plant species and forest-dependent communities in the Amazon region.
  • 2.2K
  • 28 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Risk-Based Flood Management
“Flood management” refers to the general method involved in flood prevention and subsequent flood loss, whereas “risk-based flood management” is the combination of all of the actions that aim at the amelioration of the overall activities in a floodplain.
  • 2.2K
  • 21 Jan 2021
Topic Review
GTL in Wastewater Treatment
Gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology involves the conversion of natural gas into several liquid hydrocarbon products. The Fischer–Tropsch (F–T) process is the most widely applied approach for GTL, and it is the main source of wastewater in the GTL process. The wastewater is generally characterized by high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) content due to the presence of alcohol, ketones and organic acids. The discharge of this highly contaminated wastewater without prior treatment can cause adverse effects on human life and aquatic systems. Here, we provide an overview of recent literature related to the application of biotechnology for the treatment of GTL process water.  It examines aerobic and anaerobic biological treatment methods that have been shown to reduce the concentration of COD and organic compounds in wastewater. Advanced biological treatment methods, such as cell immobilization and application of nanotechnology are also evaluated. The removal of alcohol and volatile fatty acids (VFA) from GTL wastewater can be achieved successfully under anaerobic conditions. However, the combination of anaerobic systems with aerobic biodegradation processes or chemical treatment processes can be a viable technology for the treatment of highly contaminated GTL wastewater with high COD concentration. The ultimate goal is to have treated wastewater that has good enough quality to be reused in the GTL process, which could lead to cost reduction and environmental benefits.
  • 2.2K
  • 28 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Climate Change (General Concept)
Climate change occurs when changes in Earth's climate system result in new weather patterns that remain in place for an extended period of time. This length of time can be as short as a few decades to as long as millions of years. Scientists have identified many episodes of climate change during Earth's geological history; more recently since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities driving global warming, and the terms are commonly used interchangeably in that context. The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also gives off energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Climate change is a long-term, sustained trend of change in climate. Such changes can be the result of "internal variability", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate change can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate change has various consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.
  • 2.2K
  • 14 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Metabolic and Physiological Adaptations with Opuntia
Adapting our food production chain and increasing the flora and fauna’s livelihood in climate change-affected areas using Opuntia is not only theoretical but already exists in practice in many places. This cactus grows in unsuitable soil for most species as it is adapted to arid and semi-arid soils and hot weather. In these regions, Opuntia protects from erosion and contributes to soil health. Opuntia has a high potential as an invasive species, with caution always being recommended when dealing with this specie. The high content of specific compounds, such as proline, indicaxanthin, and betanin, found in Opuntia ficus-indica, influence the plant’s adaptation to unfavourable conditions.
  • 2.2K
  • 24 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Environmental Data Visualization Tools
The visualization of environmental data is important for the assessment of processes taking place in the environment. Visualization of collected data includes plotting charts or drawing maps with values of the variables collected by monitoring system or predicted by modelling software. There are many tools used by environmental scientists developed for the purpose of data visualization.
  • 2.2K
  • 15 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Methylmercury in Aquatic Environments
Methylmercury (MeHg) is the most important and the most abundant organic Hg pollutant in the aquatic ecosystem that can affect human health through biomagnification. It is the most toxic organic Hg form, which occurs naturally and by human-induced contamination in water and is further biomagnified in the aquatic food web. MeHg is the only Hg form that accumulates in living organisms and is able to cross the blood–brain barrier, presenting an enormous health risk. Anthropogenic activity increases eutrophication of coastal waters worldwide, which promotes algae blooms. Microalgae, as primary producers, are especially sensitive to MeHg exposure in water and are an important entrance point for MeHg into the aquatic food web. MeHg assimilated by microalgae is further transferred to fish, wildlife and, eventually, humans as final consumers. MeHg biomagnifies and bioaccumulates in living organisms and has serious negative health effects on humans, especially newborns and children.
  • 2.2K
  • 07 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Biomass and Waste Produced
In the late twentieth century, the only cost-effective opportunity for waste removal cost at least several thousand dollars, but nowadays, a lot of improvement has occurred. The biomass and waste generation problems attracted concerned authorities to identify and provide environmentally friendly sustainable solutions that possess environmental and economic benefits. The present study emphasises the valorisation of biomass and waste produced by domestic and industrial sectors.
  • 2.2K
  • 05 Nov 2021
Topic Review
The Honey Bee Apis mellifera
The honey bee Apis mellifera Linnaeus (1758) provides many benefits to humans and ecosystems. This species is an important pollinator in natural environments, which may help to preserve and restore the biodiversity of wild plants. On the other hand, pollination in agro-ecosystems by managed honey bee colonies may enhance crop yield and quality, meeting the increasing food demand. Beekeeping is also a high-valued and income-generating activity, which provides humans with honey as high-quality food as well as substances used as raw materials and in pharmaceuticals. In addition, the honey bee and its products are valuable bioindicators and bioaccumulators of environmental pollution: they provide valuable information on the impact of human activities, enabling the implementation of measures to mitigate risks to human and ecosystem health. The honey bee is also linked to many cultural ecosystem services and has a longstanding tradition in human culture, mysticism, and religion. Its popularity may be therefore used for educational purposes and to raise public awareness of important issues, such as the conservation of pollinator habitats and biodiversity.
  • 2.2K
  • 22 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Biogas Plants
The biogas production technology has improved over the last years for the aim of reducing the costs of the process, increasing the biogas yields, and minimizing the greenhouse gas emmisions. To obtain a stable and efficient biogas production, there are several design considerations and operational parameters to be taken into account. Besides, adapting the process to unanticipated conditions can be achieved  by adaquate monitoring of various operational parameters. This paper reviewa the research that has been conducted over the last years. This review paper summarizes the developments in biogas design and operation, while highlighting the main factors that affect the efficiency of the anaerobic digestion process. The study´s outcomes revealed that the optimum operational values of the main parameters may vary from one biogas plant to another. Additionally, the negative conditions that should be avoided while operating a biogas plant were identified.
  • 2.2K
  • 05 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Bivalve Shells’ Waste Valorization
Bivalve shells are mainly formed by CaCO3, giving them the potential to become a promising secondary raw material for several applications, from a circular economy perspective. All the examples reported aimed to map the principal opportunities of mollusk shells waste recovery, in order to implement a circular blue-economy model and provide more sustainable and responsible production systems.
  • 2.2K
  • 31 May 2022
Topic Review
Bio-energy with Carbon Capture and Storage
Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a potential greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy (energy from biomass) use with geologic carbon capture and storage. The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops, which extract carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere as they grow, the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants, and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations. There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar, carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial and enhanced weathering. According to a recent Biorecro report, there is 550 000 tonnes CO2/year in total BECCS capacity currently operating, divided between three different facilities (as of January 2012). In the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), BECCS was indicated as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets. The negative emissions that can be produced by BECCS has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and according to the International Energy Agency, the BLUE map climate change mitigation scenario calls for more than 2 gigatonnes of negative CO2 emissions per year with BECCS in 2050. According to Stanford University, 10 gigatonnes is achievable by this date. The Imperial College London, the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, the Walker Institute for Climate System Research, and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change issued a joint report on carbon dioxide removal technologies as part of the AVOID: Avoiding dangerous climate change research program, stating that "Overall, of the technologies studied in this report, BECCS has the greatest maturity and there are no major practical barriers to its introduction into today’s energy system. The presence of a primary product will support early deployment." According to the OECD, "Achieving lower concentration targets (450 ppm) depends significantly on the use of BECCS".
  • 2.2K
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
The Fungi That Degrade Plastic
Plastic has become established over the world as an essential basic need for our daily life. Plastics have many characteristics such as low production costs, inertness, relatively low weight, and durability. The primary disadvantage of plastics is their extremely slow natural degradation. The latter results in an accumulation of plastic waste in nature. Many fungi can be used to degrade plastics.
  • 2.2K
  • 03 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Moisture Pretreatment for a CEMS
A continuous emission monitoring system (CEMS) is a well-known tool used to analyze the concentrations of air pollutants from stationary sources. In a CEMS, the presence of a high moisture level in a sample causes a loss of analytes due to artifact formation or absorption. This issue brings about a bias in the measurement data. Thus, moisture removal is an important pretreatment step.  
  • 2.2K
  • 25 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Microplastics in Ecosystems
Plastics are widely used due to their excellent properties, inexpensiveness and versatility leading to an exponential consumption growth during the last decades. However, most plastic does not biodegrade in any meaningful sense; it can exist for hundreds of years. Only a small percentage of plastic waste is recycled, the rest being dumped in landfills, incinerated or simply not collected. Microplastics can be generally divided in two big families: primary microplastics and secondary microplastics. Plastics with microscopic size, ca. 2–5 mm in diameter, are defined as primary microplastics. Secondary microplastics enclose tiny plastic fragments derived from the breakdown of larger plastic debris, both at sea and on land. Waste-water treatment plants can only minimize the problem by trapping plastic particles of larger size and some smaller ones remain within oxidation ponds or sewage sludge, but a large amount of microplastics still contaminate water streams and marine systems. 
  • 2.2K
  • 23 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Tougher Plastics Ban Policies in China
After the Chinese government's new plastics ban policies issued in 2020, another set of tougher plastics ban measures were introduced in Shanghai, China in 2021. The tougher plastic ban polices completely forbade the usage of plastic carrier bags and required all supermarkets to sell only cloth or nylon carrier bags priced from RMB 1.0 to 39.0. Tougher plastics ban policies are penalty-oriented. The tougher plastics ban policies produce positive plastics reducing effects by observing significantly decreased usage of charged carrier bags by 46%, and significantly increased usage of old plastic bags and reusable bags by 117% and 36%, respectively. Policy execution loopholes are found in some supermarkets which do not follow the tougher plastics ban measures. Fortunately, the spill-over effects from tougher-measure-executing supermarkets fix this issue to some extent. The tougher 2021 measures fail to be the most powerful impacting factor on people’s usage of each type of bag. To produce better plastics reducing results, other bag-targeted measures are necessary.
  • 2.1K
  • 19 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Vermicomposting
Vermicomposting is a process that has been intensively studied for years and has become significant and frequent topic. Numerous papers are describing its mechanism and performance, but each highlights different aspects. Although numerous studies have been conducted on the topic of vermicomposting and each of them has contributed to understanding the role of vermicompost, there are still unknowns that need to be additionally explored to maximize the potential of vermicompost and to recoup the process itself according to specific needs.
  • 2.1K
  • 27 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Carbon Literacy
Carbon Literacy is the awareness of climate change and the climate impacts of mankind's everyday actions. The term has been used in a range of contexts in scientific literature and in casual usage (see Research), but is most associated with The Carbon Literacy Project (CLP).
  • 2.1K
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Food Safety Culture in Nigeria
Food safety culture describes a collection of learned and shared attitudes, values and beliefs that form the foundation of the hygienic behaviors used within a particular food handling environment. Sharman et al. defines food safety culture as a long-term paradigm in a food handling organization deeply rooted in beliefs, behaviors and assumptions which impact the food safety performance within the organization.
  • 2.1K
  • 22 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Barriers to Electric Vehicle Adoption in Thailand
Electric vehicles (EVs) are considered to be a solution for sustainable transportation. EVs can reduce fossil fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and the negative impacts of climate change and global warming, as well as help improve air quality.
  • 2.1K
  • 09 Dec 2021
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