Observed slump of sea land breeze in Brisbane under the effect of aerosols from remote transport during 2019 Australian mega fire events

The 2019 Australian mega fires were unprecedented considering their intensity and consistency. There has been much research on the environmental and ecological effects of these mega fires, most of which focused on the effect of huge aerosol loadings and the ecological devastation. Sea land breeze (SLB) is a regional thermodynamic circulation closely related to coastal pollution dispersion, yet few have looked into how it is influenced by different types of aerosols transported from either nearby or remote areas. Mega fires provide an optimal scenario of large aerosol emissions. Near the coastal site of Brisbane Archerfield during January 2020, when mega fires were the strongest, reanalysis data from Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2) showed that mega fires did release huge amounts of aerosols, making aerosol optical depth (AOD) of total aerosols, black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC) approximately 240 %, 425 % and 630 % of the averages in other non-fire years. Using 20 years' wind observations of hourly time resolution from a global observation network managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), we found that the SLB day number during that month was only 4, accounting for 33.3 % of the multi-years' average. The land wind (LW) speed and sea wind (SW) speed also decreased by 22.3 % and 14.8 % compared with their averages respectively. Surprisingly, fire spot and fire radiative power (FRP) analysis showed that heating effects and aerosol emission of the nearby fire spots were not the main causes of the local SLB anomaly, while the remote transport of aerosols from the fire centre was mainly responsible for the decrease of SW, which was partially offset by the heating effect of nearby fire spots and the warming effect of long-range transported BC and CO2. The large-scale cooling effect of aerosols on sea surface temperature (SST) and the burst of BC contributed to the slump of LW. The remote transport of total aerosols was mainly caused by free diffusion, while the large-scale wind field played a secondary role at 500 m. The large-scale wind field played a more important role in aerosol transport at 3 km than at 500 m, especially for the gathered smoke, but free diffusion remained the major contributor. The decrease of SLB speed boosted the local accumulation of aerosols, thus making SLB speed decrease further, forming a positive feedback mechanism.

Evaluation of coastal pollution in Banda Aceh based on BOD5 and DO approach

The demand for preserving the aquatic environment is a top priority for the Indonesian government. The Banda Aceh coast has experienced anthropogenic developments since the 2004 tsunami hit. During the preliminary investigation in 2017, it indicated that the Banda Aceh coast had been contaminated. Here, we investigated water quality in Banda Aceh coast has been conducted during 2018-2019. We employed the Winkler titration for determining Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5) and Dissolved Oxygen (DO). Furthermore, we generated spatial analysis to show the distribution of BOD5 and DO around the Banda Aceh coast. As a result, BOD5 has been decreased with the value of 1.33 mg/L. Interestingly, the increased DO value of 1.48 mg/L indicated the presence of autotroph biota producing an oxygen atom during 2018-2019. A contrary influence of BOD5 and DO on NO3- was identified, which approximately 50% concentration of nutrient determined by oxygen availability in 2018, while it was less than 5% for the 2019 survey. In conclusion, we suspect that the Banda Aceh coast is categorized as polluted waters for marine biota and tourism.

Observed slump of sea land breeze in Brisbane under the effect of aerosols from remote transport during 2019 Australia mega fire events

The 2019 Australia mega fires were unprecedented considering its intensity and consistency. There have been many researches on the environmental and ecological effects of the mega fires, most of which focused on the effect of huge aerosol loadings and the ecological devastation. Sea land breeze (SLB) is a regional thermodynamic circulation closely related to coastal pollution dispersion yet few have looked into how it is influenced by different types of aerosols transported from either nearby or remote areas. Mega fires provide an optimal scenario of large aerosol loadings. Near the coastal site of Brisbane Archerfield during January in 2020 when mega fires were the strongest, reanalysis data from Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2) showed that mega fires did release huge amounts of aerosols, making aerosol optical depth (AOD) of total aerosols, Black Carbon (BC) and Organic Carbon (OC) approximately 240 %, 425 %, 630 % of the averages of other non-fire years. Using 20 years’ wind observations of hourly time resolution from global observation network managed by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), we found that SLB day number during that month was only four, accounting for 33.3 % of the multi-years’ average. The land wind (LW) speed and sea wind (SW) speed also decreased by 22.3 % and 14.8 % compared with their averages respectively. Surprisingly, fire spot and fire radiative power (FRP) analysis showed that heating effect and aerosol emission of the nearby fire spots were not the main cause of local SLB anomaly while the remote transport of aerosols from the fire center was mainly responsible for the decrease of SW, which was partially offset by the heating effect of nearby fire spots and warming effect of long-range transported BC and CO2. The large scale cooling effect of aerosols on sea surface temperature (SST) and the burst of BC contributed to the slump of LW. The remote transport of total aerosols was mainly caused by free diffusion while large scale wind field played a secondary role at 500 m. Large scale wind field played a more important role in aerosol transport at 3 km than at 500 m, especially for the gathered smoke, but free diffusion remained the major contributor. The decrease of SLB speed boosted the local accumulation of aerosols, thus further made SLB speed decrease, forming a positive feedback mechanism.

Coastal and Marine Pollution in Bangladesh: Pathways, Hotspots and Adaptation Strategies

Marine and coastal pollution is a global issue for human health and biodiversity. We have investigated pollution sources, flow patterns, hotspots, challenges, and adaptation policies in Bangladesh. Industries, ship breaking yards, sewage, tourism, and transboundary depositions are the main sources of pollutions. The Ganges, Padma, Jamuna, Brahmaputra and Meghna carry wastes to the Bay of Bengal. Pollution hotspots are Dhaka, Gazipur, Narshingdi, Narayanganj, Chittagong, Khulna, Mongla port and Sylhet city. Textile and dyeing industries discharge 12.7–13.5 million m3 waste waters annually and pollute 20% of fresh water. Ship breaking yards dump about 22.5 tons polychlorinated biphenyls in a year. More than 50% of the marine oil pollution comes from urban activities. Plastic wastes at 3000 t day-1 and tourism are also contributing to the coastal pollution. Effluent releasing standards are not maintained, and thus higher concentrations of heavy metals are found with marine fishes. Use of heavy metal tolerant crops (rice: BRRI dhan47, potato: Cardinal, mustard: Brassica napus, flower: Marigold, vegetables: Cucumber, fibre: Kenaf, and so on), trap cropping, deep placement of fertilizers, integrated rice-fish-duck culture, etc can be adopted in polluted areas. There are laws for environmental issues, but coordination and financial capabilities does not warrant its effectiveness. Necessary steps are to be taken to improve infrastructure to ensure sanitation and benign discharge of industrial effluents. Systematic study on sources, fate and extent of current effluents dumping in water ways need to be assessed for wellbeing of aquatic life and human health.

IDENTIFIKASI SAMPAH ANORGANIK PADA EKOSISTEM MANGROVE DI DESA LESAH KECAMATAN TAGULANDANG KABUPATEN SITARO

Based on the material content, waste is grouped into two types, namely organic waste (waste derived from animal, plant and human parts) and inorganic waste (waste derived from materials such as metal, glass, styrofoam, plastic and rubber). Inorganic waste is one of the coastal pollution problems, yet information about inorganic waste in mangrove ecosystem was relatively low, especially at Lesah Village, Tagulandang Sub district, Sitaro Regency. This study aims to determine the distribution of inorganic waste by type and to analyze the characteristic of inorganic waste based on the amount of size and weight found. The method used in this research is the line transects method at 3 different stations. The results showed that the types of marine debris that found were plastic, rubber, metal, and glass waste and there were 2 characteristics, namely mega-debris and macro-debris. Of the various types of debris obtained, plastic is the most commonly found, 161 items/23.329m2 (69.099 Items/ha) with a total weight of 1357.75 gram/ha and a total size of 1938.93 cm/ha. Followed by rubber debris as many as 5 items/23.329m2 (2.146 items/ha) with a total weight of 159.309 gram/ha and a total size of 59.871 cm/ha. Then, glass debris as many as 4 items/23.329m2 (1.717 items/ha) with a total weight of 402,159 grams/ha a total size of 31.030 cm/ha. Whereas, metal debris is the lowest value found as many as 3 item/23.329m2 (1.288 items/ha) with a total weight of 67.622 gram/ha and a total size of 19.528 cm/ha.Keywords: Inorganic waste, Mangrove Ecosystem, Desa Lesah

A Forecast Visual Observation of the Anthropogenic Impact on the Pilgrimage Places Along the Southeast Coast of Tamil Nadu, India

The present investigation is focused on the forecasting visual observation of the impact of anthropogenic activity on the pilgrimage places located along the coastal environments in Tamil Nadu, India. Devotees performing the unregulated ritual ceremonies, open defecation, waste materials dumping and local municipality discharging wastewater contamination levels were assessed from direct visual surveillance, and by taking photographs and baseline information collected from five different pilgrimage sites. Results showed that ritual ceremonies, wastewater discharges and debris highly contaminated site-III, and found open defecation at site-I. The lack of coastal regulation, pollution awareness, insufficient sanitation facilities and failure to control the commercial and recreational activities have major deleterious effects on the present and future environments of the coastal areas. This is the first attempt conducted by visual assessment of the coastal pollution in pilgrimage places. The results immensely support the recommendation for proper regulation of ritual activities, arrangement of basic sanitation facilities and prohibition of wastewater discharges to prevent waterborne diseases as well as to strictly follow the regional and national level of coastal regulation policy to protect the biological resources of the Gulf of Mannar marine ecosystems.