Response of toxic metal distributions and sources to anthropogenic activities and pedogenic processes in the Albic Luvisol profile of northeastern China

Chromium (Cr) is recognized as a toxic metal that has detrimental effects on living organisms; notably, it is discharged into soil by various industries as a result of anthropogenic activities. Microbe-assisted phytoremediation is one of the most emergent and environmentally friendly methods used for the detoxification of pollutants. In this study, the alleviative role of Staphylococcus aureus strain K1 was evaluated in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under Cr stress. For this, various Cr concentrations (0, 25, 50 and 100 mg·kg−1) with and without peat-moss-based bacterial inoculum were applied in the soil. Results depicted that Cr stress reduced the plants’ growth by causing oxidative stress in the absence of S. aureus K1 inoculation. However, the application of S. aureus K1 regulated the plants’ growth and antioxidant enzymatic activities by reducing oxidative stress and Cr toxicity through conversion of Cr6+ to Cr3+. The Cr6+ uptake by wheat was significantly reduced in the S. aureus K1 inoculated plants. It can be concluded that the application of S. aureus K1 could be an effective approach to alleviate the Cr toxicity in wheat and probably in other cereals grown under Cr stress.

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Zeolite for Potential Toxic Metal Uptake from Contaminated Soil: A Brief Review

Processes ◽

10.3390/pr8070820 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (7) ◽

pp. 820

Author(s):

Claudia Belviso

Keyword(s):

Metal Uptake ◽

Fossil Fuel ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Toxic Metal ◽

Fossil Fuel Combustion ◽

Silica Adsorbents ◽

Crude Oil Production ◽

Potential Toxic Metals ◽

Synthetic Zeolites ◽

Global Data

Soil pollution is an increasingly urgent problem for the global environment. Soil can be contaminated with potential toxic metals from many anthropogenic activities, besides fossil fuel combustion and crude oil production, ranging from industry to mining and agriculture. Many technologies have been analysed to solve this type of environmental pollution and methods involving the use of minerals (e.g., clay minerals, zeolites, and natural silica adsorbents) are widely described in the literature. This article provides a summary of studies concerning the use of zeolites in soil remediation. A considerable number of these experiments were conducted using natural zeolites, while fewer concerned the utilization of synthetic zeolites. The mechanism controlling the successful application of these minerals was analysed through referring to global data published on this topic over the last few decades. This review also briefly discusses the limitations on zeolite applications and the drawbacks of the approaches analysed.

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Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles for Environmental Remediation

Materials Science and Engineering ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-1798-6.ch028 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 705-741

Author(s):

Ravindra Kumar Gautam ◽

Shivani Soni ◽

Mahesh Chandra Chattopadhyaya

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Magnetic Nanoparticles ◽

Environmental Remediation ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Low Cost ◽

High Surface ◽

High Surface Area ◽

Toxic Metal ◽

Volume Ratio ◽

Removal Of Heavy Metals

Water pollution by anthropogenic activities is proving to be of critical concern as the heavy metals affect aquatic organisms and can quickly disperse to large distances. This poses a risk to both human health and the aquatic biota. Hence, there is a need to treat the wastewater containing toxic metals before they are discharged into the water bodies. During recent years, magnetic nanoparticles came to the foreground of scientific interest as a potential adsorbent of novel wastewater treatment processes. Magnetic nanoparticles have received much attention due to their unique properties, such as extremely small size, high surface-area-to-volume ratio, surface modifiability, multi functionality, excellent magnetic properties, low-cost synthesis, and great biocompatibility. The multi-functional magnetic nanoparticles have been successfully applied for the reduction of toxic metal ions up to ppb level in waste-treated water. This chapter highlights the potential application of magnetic nanoparticles for the removal of heavy metals.

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Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles for Environmental Remediation

Handbook of Research on Diverse Applications of Nanotechnology in Biomedicine, Chemistry, and Engineering - Advances in Chemical and Materials Engineering ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-6363-3.ch024 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 518-551 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ravindra Kumar Gautam ◽

Shivani Soni ◽

Mahesh Chandra Chattopadhyaya

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Magnetic Nanoparticles ◽

Environmental Remediation ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Low Cost ◽

High Surface ◽

High Surface Area ◽

Toxic Metal ◽

Volume Ratio ◽

Removal Of Heavy Metals

Water pollution by anthropogenic activities is proving to be of critical concern as the heavy metals affect aquatic organisms and can quickly disperse to large distances. This poses a risk to both human health and the aquatic biota. Hence, there is a need to treat the wastewater containing toxic metals before they are discharged into the water bodies. During recent years, magnetic nanoparticles came to the foreground of scientific interest as a potential adsorbent of novel wastewater treatment processes. Magnetic nanoparticles have received much attention due to their unique properties, such as extremely small size, high surface-area-to-volume ratio, surface modifiability, multi functionality, excellent magnetic properties, low-cost synthesis, and great biocompatibility. The multi-functional magnetic nanoparticles have been successfully applied for the reduction of toxic metal ions up to ppb level in waste-treated water. This chapter highlights the potential application of magnetic nanoparticles for the removal of heavy metals.

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Scale-dependent covariance of soil physical properties above and below a soil horizon interface: Pedogenic versus anthropogenic influences on total porosity

Canadian Journal of Soil Science ◽

10.4141/cjss10078 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 91 (2) ◽

pp. 149-159 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

M. F. Dyck ◽

R. G. Kachanoski

Keyword(s):

Spatial Variability ◽

Physical Properties ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Total Porosity ◽

Soil Physical Properties ◽

Basic Unit ◽

Soil Horizon ◽

Anthropogenic Influences ◽

Spatial Covariance ◽

Pedogenic Processes

Dyck, M. F. and Kachanoski, R. G. 2011. Scale-dependent covariance of soil physical properties above and below a soil horizon interface: Pedogenic versus anthropogenic influences on total porosity. Can. J. Soil Sci. 91: 149–159. The basic unit of soil – the pedon – is described as the minimum, three-dimensional unit of soil representative of the variability of soil horizon dimensions and morphology. Pedogenic processes responsible for soil horizon and soil profile formation are primarily hydrologic in nature. The spatially variable distribution of soil horizons (i.e., the variation among pedons within catenae or landscapes) is likely a reflection of the inherent variability of the soil parent material and the spatial variability of hydrological/pedogenic processes. This paper explores the spatial variability and spatially scale-dependent covariance between a basic soil property (porosity) above and below an A/B horizon interface under adjacent disturbed (cultivated) and undisturbed (forested) conditions. A combination of scale-dependent variance and Fourier-domain spectral analysis shows that the scale-dependent covariance of A and B horizon porosity varies significantly between the cultivated and forested sampling transects. The majority of these observed differences between the scale-dependent covariance of A and B horizon porosity under contrasting land uses is attributed to tillage. These results suggest that anthropogenic activities such as tillage may not only alter the surface horizons, but the nature of the spatial covariance between surface and underlying horizons which likely influences current soil hydrological processes.

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Bacillus Cereus Enhanced Phytoremediation Ability of Rice Seedlings under Cadmium Toxicity

BioMed Research International ◽

10.1155/2019/8134651 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Mehmood Jan ◽

Gulmeena Shah ◽

Sadaf Masood ◽

Kamran Iqbal Shinwari ◽

Rashida Hameed ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Plant Growth ◽

Bacillus Cereus ◽

Biomass Production ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Cadmium Toxicity ◽

Toxic Metal ◽

Rice Seedling ◽

Rice Cultivars ◽

Plant Growth Promoting Activities ◽

Plant Growth Promoting

Cadmium (Cd+2) is a highly toxic metal, which significantly alters different biochemical and metabolic processes in plants. Massive amounts of Cd+2 is being released into the environment by different anthropogenic activities. In the present study, plant growth promoting activities of bacterial strain Bacillus cereus was evaluated under Cd+2 stress in two rice cultivars Basmati-385 and Shaheen Basmati. Cd+2 stress significantly decreased plant growth and biomass production in both cultivars. However, with the inoculation of B. cereus under Cd+2 treatments, reduced Cd+2 uptake and increased antioxidant enzymes activities in rice cultivars lead to enhanced plant growth, biomass production, photosynthetic pigments, micronutrients, and lowered electrolytes leakage. This study suggests that B. cereus has the ability to alleviating Cd toxicity and increased phytoremediation efficiency of rice seedling under Cd stress.

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Tolerance of Three Ornamental Plant Species to Chromium contamination in Soil and their Potential for Phytoextraction and Phytostabilization of the Toxic Metal

Current World Environment ◽

10.12944/cwe.16.2.06 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 386-398

Author(s):

Gayatri Sehrawat ◽

Rita Singh ◽

Anubha Kaushik

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Contaminated Soils ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Low Cost ◽

Toxic Metal ◽

Belowground Biomass ◽

Ornamental Plant ◽

Trophic Levels ◽

Toxic Heavy Metal ◽

Leaf Chlorophyll

Chromium is a reactive and toxic heavy metal that enters the soil through various anthropogenic activities and moves through food chain affecting adversely the higher trophic levels including humans. While engineering techniques to remediate metal contaminated sites are costly and energy intensive, phytoremediation with suitable plant species is a low cost, easy and eco-friendly technique, which uses solar energy in the process. Using suitable non-edible plants makes the process of remediation safe and sustainable. The present study was therefore, carried out to study growth, Cr tolerance and phytoremediation potential of three ornamental plant species Sansevieria trifasciata, Canna indica (L) and Nephrolepis exaltata (L) for removal of chromium from soil. Pot culture experiments were conducted in greenhouse using soils artificially spiked with chromium (Cr250, Cr500, Cr750 mg/kg soil). Tolerance to different concentrations of Cr varied with the plant species as reflected by the trends and magnitude of change in aboveground and belowground biomass. Leaf chlorophyll and carotenoid were quite tolerant at Cr250 for all the species, and up to Cr500 for Sansevieria. The antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) showed elevated activity in aboveground parts at Cr250, while catalase (CAT) activity declined in response to the metal. All the three species showed significant accumulation of Cr, and more so in the belowground parts. Total Cr phytoextraction was the highest in N. exaltata, followed by C. indica and S. trifasciata. In all the three species, bioconcentration factor (BCF) was >1, indicating the suitability of these species for phytoremediation of chromium contaminated soils.

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An Analytical Method for the Biomonitoring of Mercury in Bees and Beehive Products by Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry

Molecules ◽

10.3390/molecules26164878 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (16) ◽

pp. 4878

Author(s):

Maria Luisa Astolfi ◽

Marcelo Enrique Conti ◽

Martina Ristorini ◽

Maria Agostina Frezzini ◽

Marco Papi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Analytical Method ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Toxic Metal ◽

Small Mass ◽

Fluorescence Spectrometry ◽

Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry ◽

Atomic Fluorescence ◽

Lazio Region ◽

Cold Vapor ◽

C 30

Bees and their products are useful bioindicators of anthropogenic activities and could overcome the deficiencies of air quality networks. Among the environmental contaminants, mercury (Hg) is a toxic metal that can accumulate in living organisms. The first aim of this study was to develop a simple analytical method to determine Hg in small mass samples of bees and beehive products by cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The proposed method was optimized for about 0.02 g bee, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly, 0.05 g beeswax and honey, or 0.1 g honeydew with 0.5 mL HCl, 0.2 mL HNO3, and 0.1 mL H2O2 in a water bath (95 °C, 30 min); samples were made up to a final volume of 5 mL deionized water. The method limits sample manipulation and the reagent mixture volume used. Detection limits were lower than 3 µg kg−1 for a sample mass of 0.02 g, and recoveries and precision were within 20% of the expected value and less than 10%, respectively, for many matrices. The second aim of the present study was to evaluate the proposed method’s performances on real samples collected in six areas of the Lazio region in Italy.

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Advances in “Omics” Approaches for Improving Toxic Metals/Metalloids Tolerance in Plants

Frontiers in Plant Science ◽

10.3389/fpls.2021.794373 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Ali Raza ◽

Javaria Tabassum ◽

Zainab Zahid ◽

Sidra Charagh ◽

Shanza Bashir ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Safety ◽

Toxic Metals ◽

Agricultural Production ◽

Defense Mechanisms ◽

Crop Production ◽

Metal Tolerance ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Toxic Metal ◽

Transcriptional Responses ◽

High Urgency

Food safety has emerged as a high-urgency matter for sustainable agricultural production. Toxic metal contamination of soil and water significantly affects agricultural productivity, which is further aggravated by extreme anthropogenic activities and modern agricultural practices, leaving food safety and human health at risk. In addition to reducing crop production, increased metals/metalloids toxicity also disturbs plants’ demand and supply equilibrium. Counterbalancing toxic metals/metalloids toxicity demands a better understanding of the complex mechanisms at physiological, biochemical, molecular, cellular, and plant level that may result in increased crop productivity. Consequently, plants have established different internal defense mechanisms to cope with the adverse effects of toxic metals/metalloids. Nevertheless, these internal defense mechanisms are not adequate to overwhelm the metals/metalloids toxicity. Plants produce several secondary messengers to trigger cell signaling, activating the numerous transcriptional responses correlated with plant defense. Therefore, the recent advances in omics approaches such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, ionomics, miRNAomics, and phenomics have enabled the characterization of molecular regulators associated with toxic metal tolerance, which can be deployed for developing toxic metal tolerant plants. This review highlights various response strategies adopted by plants to tolerate toxic metals/metalloids toxicity, including physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses. A seven-(omics)-based design is summarized with scientific clues to reveal the stress-responsive genes, proteins, metabolites, miRNAs, trace elements, stress-inducible phenotypes, and metabolic pathways that could potentially help plants to cope up with metals/metalloids toxicity in the face of fluctuating environmental conditions. Finally, some bottlenecks and future directions have also been highlighted, which could enable sustainable agricultural production.

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Ground-based aerosol climatology of China: aerosol optical depths from the China Aerosol Remote Sensing Network (CARSNET) 2002–2013

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-15-7619-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (13) ◽

pp. 7619-7652 ◽

Cited By ~ 143

Author(s):

H. Che ◽

X.-Y. Zhang ◽

X. Xia ◽

P. Goloub ◽

B. Holben ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Eastern China ◽

Particle Growth ◽

Northeastern China ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Industrial Emissions ◽

Rural And Urban Areas ◽

Rural And Urban ◽

Dust Events

Abstract. Long-term measurements of aerosol optical depths (AODs) at 440 nm and Ångström exponents (AE) between 440 and 870 nm made for CARSNET were compiled into a climatology of aerosol optical properties for China. Quality-assured monthly mean AODs are presented for 50 sites representing remote, rural, and urban areas. AODs were 0.14, 0.34, 0.42, 0.54, and 0.74 at remote stations, rural/desert regions, the Loess Plateau, central and eastern China, and urban sites, respectively, and the corresponding AE values were 0.97, 0.55, 0.82, 1.19, and 1.05. AODs increased from north to south, with low values (< 0.20) over the Tibetan Plateau and northwestern China and high AODs (> 0.60) in central and eastern China where industrial emissions and anthropogenic activities were likely sources. AODs were 0.20–0.40 in semi-arid and arid regions and some background areas in northern and northeastern China. AEs were > 1.20 over the southern reaches of the Yangtze River and at clean sites in northeastern China. In the northwestern deserts and industrial parts of northeast China, AEs were lower (< 0.80) compared with central and eastern regions. Dust events in spring, hygroscopic particle growth during summer, and biomass burning contribute the high AODs, especially in northern and eastern China. The AODs show decreasing trends from 2006 to 2009 but increased ~ 0.03 per year from 2009 to 2013.

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