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Advances in Environmental Processes and Effects of Pollutants

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 8409

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xiaoxia Lu

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Guest Editor

College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Interests: transport and transformation of pollutants; remediation of contaminated soil and ground-water; effects of pollutants on microorganisms; effects of pollutants on human beings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Kai Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Interests: green materials and technologies for remediation of heavy metal contaminated sites with long-term and stable effect; ecological restoration of sandified lands; sewage sludge sanitary landfill and land application

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The presence of various pollutants in the environment is a subject of widespread concern because of their potential adverse effects on the ecosystem and human health. Pollutants such as BTEX, chlorinated solvents, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, perfluorinated and polyfluorinated compounds, pesticides, antibiotics, metals, microplastics, etc. may become airborne, get into soil, enter bodies of water, or be taken up by plants and animals, depending on their physiochemical properties and environmental conditions. They may be broken down or transferred by further processes, affecting the ecological environment and human health. Understanding the environmental processes and effects of these pollutants helps to establish sound science-based regulations and develop effective management practices.

This Special Issue seeks papers on advanced research in the environmental processes and effects of pollutants. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

(1) New technologies and approaches for measurements;

(2) State-of-the-art characterization of environmental fate;

(3) Novel methods to predict and quantify environmental processes;

(4) Approaches to bridge laboratory studies to field-observed behavior;

(5) Bioavailability and bioaccessibility: quantification, mechanisms of interactions of pollutants with environmental matrix;

(6) Distribution, uptake, transport and metabolism of emerging pollutants.

Dr. Xiaoxia Lu
Dr. Kai Yang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

environmental processes
effects
risk assessment
bioavailability
bioaccessibility
adsorption
uptake
transport
biodegradation
transformation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 1849 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Oleate Impacts on Acetoclastic and Hydrogenotrophic Methanogenesis under Mesophilic and Thermophilic Conditions

by Xiang Li, Yang Yang, Chen-Shun Lu, Takuro Kobayashi, Zhe Kong and Yong Hu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(4), 3423; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043423 - 15 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1504

Abstract

This study investigated oleate inhibition concentration on mesophilic and thermophilic sludge by utilizing acetate and H₂/CO₂ (80:20, v/v) as substrate, respectively. In addition, another batch experiment was carried out to explore the influence of oleate loads (mM-oleate/g-VS) on methane production. Generally, the mesophilic anaerobic system was more stable than the thermophilic system, which embodied higher microbial abundance, higher methane yield, and higher oleate tolerance. Furthermore, this study provides a possible methanogenic pathway impacted by oleate under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions according to functional microbial composition. Lastly, this paper provides noticeable and avoidable oleate concentrations and loads under different experimental conditions as a guide for future anaerobic bioreactors of lipidic waste biodegradation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Environmental Processes and Effects of Pollutants)

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13 pages, 2130 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhanced Bioremediation of Aged Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Soil Using Immobilized Microbial Consortia Combined with Strengthening Remediation Strategies

by Haixuan Zhou, Xiurong Gao, Suhang Wang, Youchi Zhang, Frederic Coulon and Chao Cai

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 1766; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031766 - 18 Jan 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2096

Abstract

Microbial biodegradation is considered as one of the most effective strategies for the remediation of soil contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). To improve the degradation efficiency of PAHs, PAH-degrading consortia combined with strengthening remediation strategies was used in this study. The PAH biodegrading performance of seven bacterial consortia constructed by different ratios of Mycobacterium gilvum MI, Mycobacterium sp. ZL7 and Rhodococcus rhodochrous Q3 was evaluated in an aqueous system containing phenanthrene, pyrene, benzo[a]pyrene and benzo[b]fluoranthene. Bacterial consortium H6 (Q3:ZL7:MI = 1:2:2) performed a high degrading efficiency of 59% in 8 days. The H6 was subsequently screened to explore its potential ability and performance to degrade aged PAHs in soils from a coking plant and the effects of strengthening strategies on the aged PAH degradation, including the addition of glucose or sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) individually or as a mixture along immobilization of the inoculant on biochar. The highest degradation efficiencies, which were 15% and 60% for low-molecular-weight (LMW) PAHs and high-molecular-weight (HMW) PAHs, respectively, were observed in the treatment using immobilized microbial consortium H6 combined with the addition of glucose and SDBS after 24 days incubation. This study provides new insights and guidance for future remediation of aged PAH contaminated soils. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Environmental Processes and Effects of Pollutants)

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15 pages, 1465 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Impact of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) of Falling Dust in Urban Area Settings: Status, Chemical Composition, Sources and Potential Human Health Risks

by Mohamed Hamza EL-Saeid, Abdulaziz G. Alghamdi and Abdulhakim Jari Alzahrani

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(2), 1216; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021216 - 10 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1614

Abstract

The present work is considered to investigate the sources, concentration, and composition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and associated health risk assessment of road dust in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. The study region included an urban area, strongly affected by traffic, a bare and an industrial area. A total of 50 locations were selected for sampling and 16 different PAHs were determined. The concentration of PAHs in road dust and their estimated lifetime average daily dose (LADD) for adults (human) ranged from 0.01 to 126 ng g⁻¹ and 1950 to 16,010 mg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹, respectively. The ADDing was calculated separately for children (>6), teenagers (6–12), and adults (>12) for all PAHs with each collected sample. Moreover, the average daily exposure dose by ingestion (ADDing) and average daily exposure dose by dermal absorption (ADDder) were more in children (<6 years) as compared to teenagers (6–12 years) and adults (>12 years). Likewise, total equivalency factor based on BaP (TEQBaP) calculations pointed out that PAHs having more benzene rings or having high molecular weight showed high TEQBaP as compared to low molecular weight PAHs. The data revealed that the children population is at high risk for asthma, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and immunity suppression as compared to adults in the particular area of investigated region. These outcomes of this study can be used to deliver significant policy guidelines concerning habitants of the area for possible measures for controlling PAHs contamination in Riyadh City to protect human health and to ensure environmental sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Environmental Processes and Effects of Pollutants)

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15 pages, 2811 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Oxytetracycline/Lead Pollution Alone and in the Combined Form on Antibiotic Resistance Genes, Mobile Genetic Elements, and Microbial Communities in the Soil

by Tengfei Guo, Zhaoyi Li, Yanqiu Shao, Yanli Fu, Weiyi Zhang, Yingying Shao and Ying Zhu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(23), 15619; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315619 - 24 Nov 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1332

Abstract

The application of livestock manure is the leading cause of antibiotic and heavy metal pollution in agricultural soil. However, the effects of oxytetracycline (OTC) and lead (Pb) pollution in the single or combined form on antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the soil need to be further studied. This study was planned to investigate the effects of OTC and Pb application on ARGs, mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and bacterial abundance in the soil. The relative abundance of ARGs and MGEs increased by 0.31-fold and 0.03-fold after the addition of 80 mg kg⁻¹ Pb to the soil, and by 0.49-fold and 0.03-fold after the addition of 160 mg kg⁻¹ Pb. In addition, under the premise of the existence of OTC, the inhibitory effect of a low concentration of Pb on ARG is stronger than that of a high concentration of Pb, resulting in a lower abundance of ARGs. The abundance of ARGs and MGEs increased by 0.11-fold and 0.17-fold after the addition of OTC (30 mg kg⁻¹) to the soil at a Pb concentration of 80 mg kg⁻¹ and by 0.18-fold and 0.04-fold at a Pb concentration of 160 mg kg⁻¹. The addition of OTC and Pb in the soil also decreased the many bacterial communities such as Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Firmicutes. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that organic matter content and pH were positively correlated with the abundance of ARGs and MGEs. At the same time, electrical conductivity (EC) had a negative correlation with the abundance of ARGs and MGEs in the soil. Intl1 was significantly associated with tetB, sul1, tetQ, sul2, and sul3. Network analysis illustrated that Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria were the main host bacteria causing changes in the abundance of ARGs and MGEs, and they were also predominant phylum in the culture environment. This conclusion can provide a reference for the related research of ARGs in soil. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Environmental Processes and Effects of Pollutants)

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13 pages, 2340 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Normalization Methods on Accuracy of Estimating Low- and High-Molecular Weight PAHs Distribution in the Soils of a Coking Plant

by Yumin Yuan, Kai Yang, Lirong Cheng, Yijuan Bai, Yingying Wang, Ying Hou and Aizhong Ding

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(23), 15470; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315470 - 22 Nov 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1070

Abstract

Mapping spatial distribution of soil contaminants at contaminated sites is the basis of risk assessment. Hotspots can cause strongly skewed distribution of the raw contaminant concentrations in soil, and consequently can require suitable normalization prior to interpolation. In this study, three normalization methods including normal score, Johnson, and Box-Cox transformation were performed on the concentrations of two low-molecular weight (LMW) PAHs (i.e., acenaphthene (Ace) and naphthalene (Nap)) and two high-molecular weight (HMW) PAHs (i.e., benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) and benzo(b)fluoranthene (BbF)) in soils of a typical coking plant in North China. The estimating accuracy of soil LMW and HMW PAHs distribution using ordinary kriging with different normalization methods was compared. The results showed that all transformed data passed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, indicating that all three data transformation methods achieved normality of raw data. Compared to Box-Cox-ordinary kriging, normal score-, and Johnson-ordinary kriging had higher estimating accuracy of the four soil PAHs distribution. In cross-validation, smaller root-mean-square error (RMSE) and mean error (ME) values were observed for normal score-ordinary kriging for both LMW and HMW PAHs compared to Johnson- and Box-Cox-ordinary kriging. Thus, normal score transformation is suitable for alleviating the impact of hotspots on estimating accuracy of the four selected soil PAHs distribution at this coking plant. The findings can provide insights into reducing uncertainty in spatial interpolation at PAHs-contaminated sites. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Environmental Processes and Effects of Pollutants)

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