Assessment of emerging and persistent contaminants in an anthropogenic-impacted watershed: Application using targeted, non-targeted, and in vitro bioassay techniques.

Emerging and persistent contaminants (EPC) pose a significant challenge to water quality monitoring efforts. Effect-based monitoring (EBM) techniques provide an efficient and systematic approach in water quality monitoring, but they tend to be resource intensive. In this study, we investigated the EPC distribution for various land uses using target analysis (TA) and non-target screening (NTS) and in vitro bioassays, both individually and integrated, in the upper Ping River Catchment, northern Thailand.

Boundary exchange completes the marine Pb cycle jigsaw.

Material fluxes at the land-ocean interface impact seawater composition and global cycling of elements. However, most attention has been focused on the fluvial dissolved fluxes. For elements like lead (Pb), whose fluvial particulate flux into the ocean is two orders of magnitude higher than the dissolved counterpart, the role of particulates in elemental cycling is potentially important but currently less appreciated.

Fuzzy clustering and distributed model for streamflow estimation in ungauged watersheds.

This paper proposes a regionalization method for streamflow prediction in ungauged watersheds in the 7461 km area above the Gharehsoo Hydrometry Station in the Ardabil Province, in the north of Iran. First, the Fuzzy c-means clustering method (FCM) was used to divide 46 gauged (19) and ungauged (27) watersheds into homogenous groups based on a variety of topographical and climatic factors. After identifying the homogenous watersheds, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was calibrated and validated using data from the gauged watersheds in each group.

Promoting sustainability education through hands-on approaches: a tree carbon sequestration exercise in a Singapore green space.

During a university class project related to climate change mitigation strategies, we utilized a university green space as a "living laboratory" for collaborative learning exercise to estimate landscape-level carbon biomass storage. The key objective of the exercise was to foster sustainability awareness with regard to the effectiveness of tree-planting initiatives to offset carbon emissions. Collaborative learning is a process by which students work together in small groups to accomplish a common goal.

Respective contribution of urban wastewater and mangroves on nutrient dynamics in a tropical estuary during the monsoon season.

Estuaries of Southeast Asia are increasingly impacted by land-cover changes and pollution. Here, our research objectives were to (1) determine the origins of nutrient loads along the Can Gio estuary (Vietnam) and (2) identify the processes that affect the nutrient pools during the monsoon. We constructed four 24-h time-series along the salinity gradient measuring nutrient concentrations and stable isotopes values.

Soil elemental analysis in a high conservation tropical forest in Singapore.

To understand the distribution of soil elemental concentrations and their potential sources of trace metal contamination in the high-conservation Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest in Singapore, we analyzed samples from 227 surface and 35 subsurface (auger profiles) locations. Our assessment involved distribution maps, principle component analysis, cluster analysis, and correlation analysis of element concentrations determined from a mixed acid digestion and measurement on an ICP-MS. We found a distinct zonation in the distribution of several elements (Ba, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Sr, Ti, V, and Zn) between the upper and lower catchment that gives an erroneous notion of widespread contamination in the lower catchment.

Temporal Variability of Faecal Contamination from On-Site Sanitation Systems in the Groundwater of Northern Thailand.

We investigated the impacts of on-site sanitation systems to local groundwater. In this year-long study, we monitored the response of faecal contamination levels to hydroclimatological factors including rainfall and groundwater table. Concentration of faecal indicators-E.

Political transition and emergent forest-conservation issues in Myanmar.

Political and economic transitions have had substantial impacts on forest conservation. Where transitions are underway or anticipated, historical precedent and methods for systematically assessing future trends should be used to anticipate likely threats to forest conservation and design appropriate and prescient policy measures to counteract them. Myanmar is transitioning from an authoritarian, centralized state with a highly regulated economy to a more decentralized and economically liberal democracy and is working to end a long-running civil war.

Untangling the proximate causes and underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Myanmar.

Political transitions often trigger substantial environmental changes. In particular, deforestation can result from the complex interplay among the components of a system-actors, institutions, and existing policies-adapting to new opportunities. A dynamic conceptual map of system components is particularly useful for systems in which multiple actors, each with different worldviews and motivations, may be simultaneously trying to alter different facets of the system, unaware of the impacts on other components.

Hydrological connectivity and Burkholderia pseudomallei prevalence in wetland environments: investigating rice-farming community's risk of exposure to melioidosis in North-East Thailand.

In our analysis of 136 water samples from wetland environments (rice paddies, natural wetland sites, man-made water bodies) in rural areas of North-East Thailand, Burkholderia pseudomallei was most prevalent in rice paddies (15 of the 30 positive sites). The high prevalence in the water of rice fields is indicative of the inherent vulnerability of farmers in rural agricultural areas in this area of Thailand and likely other locations in the tropics. Nearly all B.

Correction: Pathogenic waterborne free-living amoebae: An update from selected Southeast Asian countries.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Pathogenic waterborne free-living amoebae: An update from selected Southeast Asian countries.

Data on the distribution of free-living amoebae is still lacking especially in Southeast Asian region. The aquatic environment revealed a high occurrence of free-living amoebae (FLA) due to its suitable condition and availability of food source, which subsequently causes infection to humans. A total of 94 water samples consisted of both treated and untreated from Laos (31), Myanmar (42), and Singapore (21) were investigated for the presence of pathogenic FLA.

Prevalence of Cryptosporidium and Giardia in the water resources of the Kuang River catchment, Northern Thailand.

A catchment-scale investigation of the prevalence of Cryptosporidium and Giardia in the Kuang River Basin was carried out during the dry and rainy seasons. Water samples were collected from the Kuang River and its tributaries as well as a major irrigation canal at the study site. We also investigated the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitic infection among dairy and beef cattle hosts.

Fluoride: A naturally-occurring health hazard in drinking-water resources of Northern Thailand.

In Northern Thailand, incidences of fluorosis resulting from the consumption of high-fluoride drinking-water have been documented. In this study, we mapped the high-fluoride endemic areas and described the relevant transport processes of fluoride in enriched waters in the provinces of Chiang Mai and Lamphun. Over one thousand surface and sub-surface water samples including a total of 995 collected from shallow (depth: ≤ 30 m) and deep (> 30 m) wells were analysed from two unconnected high-fluoride endemic areas.

Tiny is mighty: seagrass beds have a large role in the export of organic material in the tropical coastal zone.

Ecosystems in the tropical coastal zone exchange particulate organic matter (POM) with adjacent systems, but differences in this function among ecosystems remain poorly quantified. Seagrass beds are often a relatively small section of this coastal zone, but have a potentially much larger ecological influence than suggested by their surface area. Using stable isotopes as tracers of oceanic, terrestrial, mangrove and seagrass sources, we investigated the origin of particulate organic matter in nine mangrove bays around the island of Phuket (Thailand).

Transpiration characteristics of a rubber plantation in central Cambodia.

The rapid and widespread expansion of rubber plantations in Southeast Asia necessitates a greater understanding of tree physiology and the impacts of water consumption on local hydrology. Sap flow measurements were used to study the intra- and inter-annual variations in transpiration rate (Et) in a rubber stand in the low-elevation plain of central Cambodia. Mean stand sap flux density (JS) indicates that rubber trees actively transpire in the rainy season, but become inactive in the dry season.

Carbon outcomes of major land-cover transitions in SE Asia: great uncertainties and REDD+ policy implications.

Policy makers across the tropics propose that carbon finance could provide incentives for forest frontier communities to transition away from swidden agriculture (slash-and-burn or shifting cultivation) to other systems that potentially reduce emissions and/or increase carbon sequestration. However, there is little certainty regarding the carbon outcomes of many key land-use transitions at the center of current policy debates. Our meta-analysis of over 250 studies reporting above- and below-ground carbon estimates for different land-use types indicates great uncertainty in the net total ecosystem carbon changes that can be expected from many transitions, including the replacement of various types of swidden agriculture with oil palm, rubber, or some other types of agroforestry systems.

Road-deposited sediments in an urban environment: A first look at sequentially extracted element loads in grain size fractions.

Sediments stored in urban drainage basins are important environmental archives for assessing contamination. Few studies have examined the geochemical fractionation of metals in individual grain size classes of solid environmental media. This is the first study of road sediments to quantify the mass loading of Al, Cu, Pb, and Zn in individual grain size classes (<63μm to 1000-2000μm) and partition contributions amongst four sequentially extracted fractions (acid extractable, reducible, oxidizable, and residual).