Topic Review
White Rot Fungi in Industrial Wastewater Treatment
White Rot Fungi (WRF) are a class of microorganisms widely understood for their ability to break down an extensive range of pollutants generally found in industrial wastewater. WRF usually carry out the degradation process with ligninolytic enzyme by targeting complex industrial pollutants, such as aromatic hydrocarbons, dyes, pharmaceuticals, and products of personal care. The unique enzymatic system of WRF converts the complex and harmful industrial pollutants into harmless end and byproducts, thus minimizing the impact on the environment and ecosystem. 
  • 340
  • 01 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Wetlands in China
China has a wetland area of 53.42 million hectares, the fourth largest in the world; it includes all types of wetlands defined by the Ramsar Convention and has a carbon sink capacity of more than 1.71 million metric tons per year. Inland wetlands in China are mainly distributed in 10 major catchments, among which the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, the rivers in the northwest, and the rivers in the northeast each have more than 8 million hectares of wetlands. There are 4220 species of plants and 4015 species of animals in China’s wetland ecosystem. The wetland resources that have been developed and utilized include edible products, reeds for paper making, peat for fertilizer, fuel for power generation, and chemical, pharmaceutical, ceramic, and building materials. Wetland areas in China have shrunk by about 54% since 1980.
  • 996
  • 18 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Wetland Water-Level Prediction
Wetlands are simply areas that are fully or partially saturated with water. Wetlands have numerous hydrological, ecological, and social values. They play an important role in interactions among soil, water, plants, and animals. The rich biodiversity in the vicinity of wetlands makes them invaluable. Many anthropogenic activities damage wetlands. Climate change has adversely impacted wetlands and their biodiversity. The shrinking of wetland areas and reducing wetland water levels can therefore be frequently seen. However, the opposite can be seen during stormy seasons. Since wetlands have permissible water levels, the prediction of wetland water levels is important.
  • 340
  • 09 May 2023
Topic Review
Wetland Systems
We provide here an overview of the use and role of aquatic macrophytes in constructed wetland systems. The ability of plants to remove metals, pharmaceutical products, pesticides, cyanotoxins and nanoparticles in constructed wetlands were compared with the removal effciency of non-planted systems, aiming to evaluate the capacity of plants to increase the removal effciency of the systems. Moreover, this review also focuses on the management and destination of the biomass produced through natural processes of water filtration. The use of macrophytes in constructed wetlands represents a promising technology, mainly due to their effciency of removal and the cost advantages of their implantation. However, the choice of plant species composing constructed wetlands should not be only based on the plant removal capacity since the introduction of invasive species can become an ecological problem.
  • 1.8K
  • 17 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Wetland Resources in South Africa
Wetlands are important ecosystems with physical and socioeconomic benefits. A wetland is defined as an area of soil covered with water or has water close to its surface all year or at some periods of the year. They are necessary for people’s livelihoods but not usually considered important.
  • 585
  • 13 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Western European Colonialism and Colonization
File:SierraLeoneHofstra3.1.tiff European colonialism and colonization was the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over other societies and territories, creating a colony, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. Research suggests, the current conditions of postcolonial countries have roots in colonial actions and policies. For example, colonial policies, such as the type of rule implemented, the nature of investments, and identity of the colonizers, are cited as impacting postcolonial states. Examination of the state-building process, economic development, and cultural norms and mores shows the direct and indirect consequences of colonialism on the postcolonial states.
  • 1.7K
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Western Caribbean Zone
The Western Caribbean Zone is a region consisting of the Caribbean coasts of Central America, from Yucatán in Mexico to northern Colombia, and also the islands west of Jamaica. The zone emerged in the late sixteenth century as the Spanish failed to completely conquer many sections of the coast, and northern European powers supported opposition to Spain, sometimes through alliances with local powers. Unsubdued indigenous inhabitants of the region included some Maya polities, and other chiefdoms and egalitarian societies, especially in Belize, eastern Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In addition, the region was the refuge of several groups of runaway slaves, who formed independent settlements or intermixed with the indigenous societies. The combination of unsubdued indigenous people, outlaws (pirates in this case), and an absence of outside control made it similar in some aspects to the American West or the Wild West, as the western half of North America is often called. Its long engagement with the English-speaking Caribbean made it an ideal conduit for trade from both the English colonies of the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, but also North America, which had been trading in the zone since the eighteenth century at least. The relatively low population and strategic location attracted United States -based transportation companies to promote infrastructure projects from railroads to the Panama Canal in the zone, and conjointly with that to introduce large-scale fruit production toward the end of the nineteenth century, often bringing in labor from the English-speaking Caribbean to assist. Unique elements of the region, relative to the population of Central America in general, is the high percentage of people of whole or partial African descent, and its cultural connections to English and the English-speaking Caribbean through language and religion.
  • 211
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Westerlies and Asian Monsoons in Middle of China
The westerly circulation and the monsoon circulation are the two major atmospheric circulation systems affecting the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (NH), which have significant impacts on climate and environmental changes in the middle latitudes. However, until now, people’s understanding of the long-term paleoenvironmental changes in the westerly- and monsoon-controlled areas in China’s middle latitudes is not uniform, and the phase relationship between the two at different time scales is also controversial, especially the exception to the “dry gets drier, wet gets wetter” paradigm in global warming between the two. 
  • 74
  • 01 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Well-Being in a Sustainable Product–Service System
To regain overall well-being in the post-pandemic era, the priorities should not be only economic growth but also human physical and mental health. 
  • 196
  • 09 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Weihe River Basin (WRB) Introduction and Governance Process
A river basin is a complete “nature–society–economy” complex system composed of natural factors such as water resources, land, and plants and human factors such as population, society, and economy. The social-ecological system (SES) framework has been put forward, which provides a new direction for the solution of complex problems in river basins. Through the use of common human language, the SES framework enables researchers to more deeply analyze the interaction between variables in the complex social ecosystem so as to form a systematic knowledge accumulation of research results in different fields.
  • 512
  • 07 May 2022
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