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Topic Review
Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities
The Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities are self-supporting assemblages of phototrophic and heterotrophic microorganisms, including bacteria, Cyanobacteria, Chlorophyta and both free-living and lichen-forming fungi. These are among the most stress-resistant organisms known to date, constantly living to the edge of their physiological adaptability.
  • 853
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Urban Built and Mixed Spaces
Natural areas are now broadly recognised as important resources to restore the cognitive and emotional resources of urban dwellers, but everyday urban environments are rarely studied for their salutogenic properties. This review collects emerging evidence of instances in which built and mixed urban environments were found to be more restorative than natural ones for the urban population. Generally, historical, recreational and panoramic places have been found to have the most restorative potential of all mixed and built urban environments. This particularly applies to teenagers and older people who value social interactions for their well-being. Vegetation and natural elements were still found to play an important role in the assessment of this restorative potential.
  • 830
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Soil Bioremediation
Petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals and agricultural pesticides have mutagenic, carcinogenic, immunotoxic and teratogenic effects and cause drastic changes in soil physicochemical and microbiological characteristics, thereby representing a serious danger to health and environment. Therefore, soil pollution urgently requires the application of a series of physicochemical and biological techniques and treatments to minimize the extent of damage. Among them, bioremediation has been shown to be an alternative that can offer an economically viable way to restore polluted areas.
  • 8.1K
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Recovery of phosphorus from wastewater
Mined phosphate rock is the largest source of phosphorus (P) for use in agriculture and agro-industry, but it also is a finite resource irregularly distributed around the world. Alternatively, waste water is a renewable source of P, available at the local scale. In waste water treatment, biological nitrogen (N) removal is applied according to a wide range of variants targeting the abatement of the ammonium content. Ammonium oxidation to nitrate can also be considered to mitigate ammonia emission, while enabling N recovery. Different alternatives exist for coupling biological N treatment and phosphate precipitation when treating waste water in view of producing P-rich materials easily usable as fertilisers. Phosphate precipitation can be applied before (upstream configuration), together with (concomitant configuration), and after (downstream configuration) N treatment; i.e., chemically induced as a conditioning pre-treatment, biologically induced inside the reactor, and chemically induced as a refining post-treatment. Characteristics of the recovered products differ significantly depending on the case studied. Currently (year 2020), precipitated phosphate salts are not typified in the European fertiliser regulation, and this fact limits marketability. Nonetheless, this topic is in progress according to potential requirements to be complied by these materials. Integrated approaches for waste water treatment including P recovery must consider significant needs for subsequent agronomic valorisation of the recovered phosphate salts following the paradigms of the circular economy, sustainability, and environmental protection.
  • 716
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Water Treatment Plant Sludge Dewatering
Using geotextile tubes as dewatering technology may significantly contribute to sustainable treatment of sludge generated in different industries, such as the water industry. This is an economical alternative for dewatering sludge from a Water Treatment Plant (WTP), which prevents sludge from being directly deposited in water bodies and makes it possible to then transfer the sludge to landfills. 
  • 1.2K
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Land Cover Change Detection
Land cover patterns in sub-Saharan Africa are rapidly changing. This study aims to quantify the land cover change and to identify its major determinants by using the Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact, Responses (DPSIR) framework in the Ethiopian Gozamin District over a period of 32 years (1986 to 2018). Satellite images of Landsat 5 (1986), Landsat 7 (2003), and Sentinel-2 (2018) and a supervised image classification methodology were used to assess the dynamics of land cover change. Land cover maps of the three dates, focus group discussions (FGDs), interviews, and farmers’ lived experiences through a household survey were applied to identify the factors for changes based on the DPSIR framework. Results of the investigations revealed that during the last three decades the study area has undergone an extensive land cover change, primarily a shift from cropland and grassland into forests and built-up areas. Thus, quantitative land cover change detection between 1986 and 2018 revealed that cropland, grassland, and bare areas declined by 10.53%, 5.7%, and 2.49%. Forest, built-up, shrub/scattered vegetation, and water bodies expanded by 13.47%, 4.02%, 0.98%, and 0.25%. Household surveys and focus group discussions (FGDs) identified the population growth, the rural land tenure system, the overuse of land, the climate change, and the scarcity of grazing land as drivers of these land cover changes. Major impacts were rural to urban migration, population size change, scarcity of land, and decline in land productivity. The outputs from this study could be used to assure sustainability in resource utilization, proper land use planning, and proper decision-making by the concerned government authorities.
  • 832
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Water Footprint of Food Production
Blue water footprint - the volume of fresh surface and groundwater that has been evaporated or incorporated into a product. Green water footprint - the rainwater that is stored in the root zone of the soil and evapotranspired or incorporated into the product. Unsustainable blue water footprint - when it exceeds the available renewable blue water, thereby violating the environmental flow standard and depleting groundwater Water footprint - an indicator of the direct and indirect water use to produce the goods and services we use.
  • 854
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Pollutant Dispersion
This entry reviews atmospheric processes affecting pollutant transport and diffusion over complex terrain, focusing in particular on the peculiarities of processes over mountains when compared to flat terrain. In fact, pollutant dispersion processes over complex terrain are much more complicated than over flat areas, as they are affected by atmospheric interactions with the orography at different spatial scales. In particular, atmospheric flows over complex terrain are characterized by a continuous and interacting range of scales, from synoptic forcing to mesoscale circulations and turbulence fluctuations. In complex terrain, the mechanical and thermal influence of the orography can modify the large-scale flow and produce smaller-scale motions which would not exist on flat terrain, thus enhancing the spatial and temporal variability of atmospheric processes relevant for pollutant dispersion.
  • 1.7K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Bioindicators of Heavy Metals Pollution
       There is a wide interest in the air quality due to the constant development of many industries and technologies, as well as an extensive use of transport, ultimately leading to emissions of atmospheric pollutants. The application of ubiquitous organisms to assess air pollution has developed significantly during the last few decades. Such living organisms are successful indicators of the presence and availability of different contaminants over time. Lichens are a very popular and effective tool in bioimonitoring. They are usually applied by transplanting from unpolluted area to a contaminated one and assessing the bioaccumulation of the pollutants in the lichen tallus. On the other hand, spider webs are a quite new tool used in the biomonitoring, although they seem to be an easy, cheap method of bioindication which could work all-year–round. Thus, the comparison between these two tools (lichens and spider webs) is eligible and very important  for efficient monitoring of air quality.  We decided to compare the way of heavy metals accumulation in spider webs from Agelenidae family (Eratigena atrica and Agelena labyrinthica) and lichens Hypogymnia physodes, exposed for two months. 
  • 1.4K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Antigorite
Antigorite is a Mg-rich 1:1 trioctahedral-structured layered silicate mineral of the serpentine group. Antigorite with layered structure can be used as a lubricant and friction reducing material to repair the friction pair of iron agent on line.
  • 2.0K
  • 26 Oct 2020
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