Article
Environmental Sciences
Georgios Charvalas, Alexandra D. Solomou, Kyriakos D. Giannoulis, Elpiniki Skoufogianni, Dimitrios Bartzialis, Christina Emmanouil, Nicholaos G. Danalatos
Summary: This article provides an overview of alternative methods for restoring contaminated soils (phytoremediation), focusing on areas of excessive metallurgical activities in Greece. Two case studies in Northern Greece were selected, one characterized by metal mining and a hot summer Mediterranean climate, and the other involving lignite mining and pollution under subtropical climate.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Yajie Wang, Jiefeng Li, Wenjiao Li, Yongfen Wei, Zhiyi Deng, Fusheng Li
Summary: Coal consumption increases consistently, and heavy metal contamination in soils surrounding coal mines has become a severe environmental issue. Investigating the relationship between bacterial communities and potential ecological risks from heavy metals is crucial for understanding the impact of coal production on ecosystem health.
ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
(2023)
Review
Food Science & Technology
Temoor Ahmed, Muhammad Noman, Muhammad Rizwan, Shafaqat Ali, Muhammad Shafiq Shahid, Bin Li
Summary: This article focuses on the toxicity of heavy metals in paddy soils and their potential health risks to humans, as well as providing a critical outlook on the recent advances and future perspectives of nanoremediation strategies.
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN FOOD SCIENCE AND NUTRITION
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Alexandra D. Solomou, Rafaelia Germani, Nikolaos Proutsos, Michaela Petropoulou, Petros Koutroumpilas, Christos Galanis, Georgios Maroulis, Antonios Kolimenakis
Summary: This study investigates the use of phytoremediation, specifically focusing on Mediterranean plants, to reduce heavy metal concentrations in contaminated soils. Based on a review of 166 research studies, the findings suggest that phytoremediation is a sustainable and affordable option, particularly for developing countries. While non-native plant species may be preferred for their metal tolerance mechanisms, they can also pose risks to local ecosystems and should be carefully considered.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Tianhong Nie, Xing Yang, Hanbo Chen, Karin Muller, Sabry M. Shaheen, Joerg Rinklebe, Hocheol Song, Song Xu, Fengchang Wu, Hailong Wang
Summary: This study investigated the influence of aging on pig- and P. orientalis-derived biochars on the sorption capacity for Cd and Zn in biochar-treated soils. The sorption capacity increased with biochar application rates, and aging led to enhanced sorption capacity due to increased oxygen-containing functional groups. The presence of DEP enhanced sorption capacity in fresh biochar treatments, but not in aged treatments.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Fang Huang, Shuying Peng, Hao Yang, Hongxia Cao, Ning Ma, Lingling Ma
Summary: This study aimed to improve the rapid detection of soil heavy metal pollution over large areas. By combining aircraft technology, embedded development, computer software, electronic information, and other technical methods, an integrated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based soil heavy metal pollution rapid detection system was built. Testing showed that the system improved regionalized soil heavy metal pollution detection efficiency.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(2022)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Xiyue Jia, David O'Connor, Zhou Shi, Deyi Hou
Summary: Soil contamination poses a threat to living standards and global sustainability efforts. Utilizing visible and infrared reflectance spectroscopy in conjunction with machine learning can effectively detect soil pollution, guiding countermeasures and remediation operations.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jens Sondergaard, Christian Juncher Jorgensen
Summary: This study evaluated the use of field portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) as a screening tool for dust source characterisation in Greenland. The results showed that pXRF combined with multivariate statistics can effectively discriminate between different dust sources, demonstrating its fast and cost-effective nature.
WATER AIR AND SOIL POLLUTION
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Shi-Hang Wang, Jian-Wei Wang, Li-Ting Zhao, Syed Zaghum Abbas, Zhugen Yang, Yang-Chun Yong
Summary: Soil microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) are used as soil-powered biosensors, but traditional SMFC sensors have limitations for long-term and continuous monitoring of toxic pollutants. A new carbon-felt-based cathodic SMFC biosensor was developed for long-term sensing of heavy metal ions in soil. The biosensor generated stable output voltage within 2 to 5 minutes upon injection of metal ions and maintained efficiency for four months without significant decrease in output voltage. This cathodic SMFC biosensor shows potential as a low-cost self-powered biosensor.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yizhang Liu, Tangfu Xiao, Zhengjie Zhu, Liang Ma, Hang Li, Zengping Ning
Summary: This study investigated the pollution, fractionation and potential risks of heavy metals in soils from a mountainous area with black shale outcropping, with emphasis on Cd and Zn. Elevated concentrations of heavy metals in black shales reflected high geochemical baseline in the study area. Metals released from oxidative weathering were redistributed and retained during pedogenic processes, leading to enrichment of certain metals in soils.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yuan Wang, Xuejiang Wang, Yuan Li, Yiyang Liu, Ying Sun, Siqing Xia, Jianfu Zhao
Summary: The presence of microplastics in soil with combined pollution of antibiotics and heavy metals can increase antibiotic resistance stimulation and affect the propagation of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) by altering soil properties, soil microbial diversity, and abundance of related genes.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Erminia Conti, Christian Mulder
Summary: Enchytraeids, especially those belonging to Clade C, show significant correlations between their biomass and heavy metals in different types of soils. These findings highlight the importance of considering soil types when assessing the effects of heavy metals on enchytraeids and the entire edaphic community.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Giorgos Thalassinos, Efi Levizou, Vasileios Antoniadis, Wanting Ling
Summary: In a pot experiment, the phytostabilization capacity of purslane was tested in soil heavily contaminated with Cd, Pb, and Zn. Various soil improvers were used, both organic and inorganic. The results showed that the organic amendments had some effect in increasing the extractability of Cd, Pb, and Zn but were not able to reduce the levels to a satisfactory extent for phytostabilization.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Pawel Tomczyk, Aleksandra Wdowczyk, Barbara Wiatkowska, Agata Szymanska-Pulikowska
Summary: This study comprehensively assessed the contamination status of agricultural soils in Poland with selected heavy metals using various indicators and statistical analysis. The research results provide insights into the spatial and structural diversification of soil contamination with metals and can be useful for formulating recommendations for soil use and environmental protection.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2023)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Heba Bedair, Soumya Ghosh, Ibrahim M. Abdelsalam, Ayaz Ali Keerio, Samar Sami AlKafaas
Summary: Soil and water in Egypt are contaminated with various pollutants, including fertilizer misuse, industrial effluent, wastewater discharge, and mining activities. These pollutants have adverse effects on air, water, food, and human health. Some plants, called hyperaccumulators, have the potential to remove pollutants from soil and water at a low cost. This review focuses on the application of trees in the phytoremediation of salts and heavy metals in Egypt.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
L. Wu, P. Harris, T. H. Misselbrook, M. R. F. Lee
Summary: Ruminant livestock play a crucial role in global food security by converting feed unsuitable for human consumption into high value food protein. Factors like animal fertility, health, and welfare will ultimately determine the sustainability of ruminant production systems. Models predicting system responses to environment and management are essential for analyzing these complex systems.
AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS
(2022)
Article
Geography
Alexis Comber, Christopher Brunsdon, Martin Charlton, Guanpeng Dong, Richard Harris, Binbin Lu, Yihe Lu, Daisuke Murakami, Tomoki Nakaya, Yunqiang Wang, Paul Harris
Summary: Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) is an increasingly popular method in spatial analyses of social and environmental data. It allows for the investigation of spatial heterogeneities in processes and relationships by using a series of local regression models instead of a single global model. This paper presents a route map for deciding whether to use a GWR model, and if so, which variant to choose. The importance of considering secondary issues at global and local scales, such as collinearity and the influence of outliers, is also highlighted.
GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Anthony Grey, Ricardo Costeira, Emmaline Lorenzo, Sean O'Kane, Margaret V. McCaul, Tim McCarthy, Sean F. Jordan, Christopher C. R. Allen, Brian P. Kelleher
Summary: Along an elevation gradient from intertidal to vegetated supratidal sediments in coastal wetlands, the accumulation of microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), alteration of membrane phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA), and changes in bacterial diversity and community composition were found to be closely related to sediment geochemical changes.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Uttam K. Roy, Jonathan Wagner, Tanja Radu
Summary: In this study, the researchers investigated the impact of dissolved inorganic carbon on the accumulation of metabolites in microalgae biomass. The results showed that the highest levels of primary metabolites were observed when the cells were grown with 5.7 g/L of bicarbonate. Additionally, the excessive dissolved inorganic carbon proved to be an effective stressor for producing high-value metabolites in Dunaliella or alkali-halophilic strains.
WASTE AND BIOMASS VALORIZATION
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Software Engineering
Binbin Lu, Yigong Hu, Dongyang Yang, Yong Liu, Liuqi Liao, Zuoyao Yin, Tianyang Xia, Zheyi Dong, Paul Harris, Chris Brunsdon, Lex Comber, Guanpeng Dong
Summary: Spatial heterogeneity and non-stationarity are important considerations when exploring relationships between variables. Geographically weighted (GW) models provide a powerful set of techniques for quantitatively describing these relationships. We have developed a user-friendly, high-performance, and comprehensive software called GWmodelS to facilitate improved and expanded usage of such models. The software includes various GW models, such as GW descriptive statistics, GW regression models, and GW principal components analysis, along with data management and mapping tools, all with well-designed interfaces.
Editorial Material
Geography
Alexis Comber, Paul Harris, Chris Brunsdon
GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Anthony Grey, Ricardo Costeira, Emmaline Lorenzo, Sean O'Kane, Margaret V. McCaul, Tim McCarthy, Sean F. Jordan, Christopher C. R. Allen, Brian P. Kelleher
Summary: Global research shows that coastal blue carbon ecosystems are vulnerable to climate change threats, such as sea-level rise and drought. Anthropogenic impacts also pose immediate threats, such as deterioration of water quality and land reclamation. It is important to protect existing blue carbon habitats to maintain carbon sequestration processes.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Chuang Liu, Yan Shan, Qiuming Wang, Paul Harris, Yi Liu, Lianhai Wu
Summary: This study aimed to assess the potential of using measured saturated soil hydraulic conductivity (ksat) to improve the simulation accuracy of water and soil mineral nitrogen content in the SPACSYS model. Results showed that measured ksat slightly improved water flux simulation, but the improvement was limited due to the high positive skewness and lack of clear spatial structure in the measured ksat. Simulation accuracy of soil moisture was similar between the field level and within-field specifications, while the within-field setting improved the simulation accuracy of soil ammonium and nitrate. The field level setting should be preferred for water flux simulation. These findings provide further evidence for choosing between field level and within-field settings.
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Daisuke Murakami, Narumasa Tsutsumida, Takahiro Yoshida, Tomoki Nakaya, Binbin Lu, Paul Harris
Summary: This study proposes linearized geographically weighted Poisson regression (L-GWPR) to overcome the limitation of GWPR in computational cost and identification problem. L-GWPR, which introduces a log-linear approximation, is computationally efficient, easily implemented, and similar potential for extension as Gaussian GWR model. Additionally, regularized L-GWPR is extended with ridge regularization to enhance stability and accurately estimate local coefficients. Comparative analysis between GWPR and regularized L-GWPR in crime analysis of Tokyo confirms the effectiveness of regularized L-GWPR.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Binbin Lu, Yong Ge, Yilin Shi, Jianghua Zheng, Paul Harris
Summary: Understanding the drivers of community-level house prices across space and time is crucial for buyers, investors, and urban policy. This study used housing market datasets from 2015 and 2019 in Wuhan, China, to examine the spatial relationships between house price and contextual data, considering the volatile market conditions. The results showed that geographically weighted regression (GWR) and multiscale GWR (MGWR) models had better fit than linear regression and spatial lag models. Moreover, MGWR revealed that the drivers of house price operated at different spatial scales and changed in strength and significance over time.
SPATIAL STATISTICS
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Alexis Comber, Paul Harris, Chris Brunsdon
Summary: This paper presents a new spatially varying coefficient regression method using a Geographical Gaussian Process GAM (GGP-GAM). The method outperforms the leading brand, Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR), in simulation and Brexit case study. The paper discusses the theoretical frameworks, implementation, and future work of both methods.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Alejandro Romero-Ruiz, M. Jordana Rivero, Alice Milne, Sarah Morgan, Paulo De Meo-Filho, Simon Pulley, Carmen Segura, Paul Harris, Michael RF. Lee, Kevin Coleman, Laura Cardenas, Andrew P. Whitmore
Summary: Grazing livestock is crucial for food security, agricultural sustainability, and climate change. Understanding how livestock move and interact with their environment can provide insights into the impact of grazing practices on soil and ecosystem functions. GPS data was used to characterize daily and seasonal grazing patterns and a new model was developed to predict changes in soil properties.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Soil Science
M. V. Galdos, J. R. Soares, K. S. Lourenco, P. Harris, M. Zeri, G. Cunha-Zeri, V. P. Vargas, I. A. M. Degaspari, H. Cantarella
Summary: This study identified the main factors affecting N2O emissions under sugarcane cultivation by analyzing a multi-site database from field experiments. The results showed that the period of 46 days after fertilization had the highest N2O fluxes. Cumulative N2O emissions were strongly positively correlated with nitrogen (N) fertilization rate, soil fungi community, and soil ammonium and nitrate content. They were moderately negatively correlated with ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and soil organic matter content. Climate and management-related variables explained over 50% of the variation in cumulative N2O emissions, and additional soil chemical and physical parameters improved the regression fit. Cross-wavelet analysis revealed significant correlations between N2O fluxes and rainfall and air temperature, with temporal lags of 2 to 4 days in some experiments.
NUTRIENT CYCLING IN AGROECOSYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Xavier Fonoll Almansa, Renata Starostka, Lutgarde Raskin, Grietje Zeeman, Francis de los Reyes III, Julie Waechter, Daniel Yeh, Tanja Radu
Summary: This article provides an overview of frequently used anaerobic digestion systems in the field of sanitation, with a focus on decentralized communities and low- and lower-middle-income countries. The technologies that consider pathogen inactivation during the design process are emphasized. The challenges to the use of anaerobic digestion are identified, and the accelerators for its implementation are discussed.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Studies
Alexis Comber, Paul Harris
Summary: Spatial data scale has a significant impact on analysis results and process understanding, but it is often ignored in environmental research. The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) describes the effects of scale on spatial data analysis, which has been overlooked in evaluations of ecosystem services and natural capital. This paper demonstrates the MAUP through an optimization problem and provides four key recommendations.
