A sustainable and highly efficient fossil-free carbon from olive stones for emerging contaminants removal from different water matrices.

The olive stone is a large waste product of the olive oil extraction industry. The present study investigates developing activated carbon from olive stone waste (OSAC) to remove pharmaceuticals from water. Different temperatures and olive stone: KOH ratios were studied.

A sustainable nano-hybrid system of laccase@M-MWCNTs for multifunctional PAHs and PhACs removal from water, wastewater, and lake water.

This study examined the use of modified multiwall carbon nanotubes (M-MWCNTs) with immobilized laccase (L@M-MWCNTs) for removing ciprofloxacin (Cip), carbamazepine (Cbz), diclofenac (Dcf), benzo[a]pyrene (Bap), and anthracene (Ant) from different water samples. The synthesized materials were characterized using an array of advanced analytical techniques. The physical immobilization of laccase onto M-MWCNTs was confirmed through Scanning electron microscope (SEM)-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis and Brunner-Emmet-Teller (BET) surface area measurements.

Anticipated impacts of climate change on the structure and function of phytobenthos in freshwater lakes.

Climate change threatens surface waters worldwide, especially shallow lakes where one of the expected consequences is a sharp increase in their water temperatures. Phytobenthos is an essential, but still less studied component of aquatic ecosystems, and it would be important to learn more about how global warming will affect this community in shallow lakes. In this research, the effects of different climate change scenarios (SSP2-4.

Efficient removal of pharmaceutical contaminants from water and wastewater using immobilized laccase on activated carbon derived from pomegranate peels.

In this study, pomegranate peels (PPs) as an abundant fruit processing waste was used to produce cost-effective, eco-friendly, and high-quality activated carbon. The produced carbon (fossil free activated carbon) was used for immobilizing laccase to remove a range of emerging pollutants namely diclofenac, amoxicillin, carbamazepine, and ciprofloxacin from water and wastewater. The loaded activated carbon by laccase (LMPPs) and the unloaded one (MPPs) were characterized using advanced surface chemistry analysis techniques.

Ecological and human health risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in Tigris river near the oil refineries in Iraq.

Recent Iraqi battles against ISIS in 2014 and 2015 resulted in the destruction or severe damage to several refineries' infrastructure. This, along with other factors, has led to the release and accumulation of a wide range of hazardous chemicals into the environment, for instance, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Thus, for the first time, a comprehensive 16 PAHs measurements campaign over the course of six months near the oil refineries along the Tigris River and its estuaries was investigated.

Influence of magnesium concentrations on the biomass and biochemical variations in the freshwater algae, .

The current study deals with the biological response variations on some biochemical properties of the freshwater green algae by exposure to different Mg concentrations (5, 10, and 15) mg/L. Physiological and biochemical parameters, including growth curve, doubling time, photosynthesis pigments, total protein and carbohydrates were investigated. Moreover, enzymatic parameters such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were also examined.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the surface water and sediment along Euphrates River system: Occurrence, sources, ecological and health risk assessment.

This study presented for the first time a comprehensive measurement campaign of 16 PAHs along the Euphrates River for five months, in both water and sediment samples. Our study revealed that the PAHs contamination increased along the flow direction due to the increasing non-point pollution and the return flows of agriculture. The 5-6 rings PAHs were dominant in water and sediment samples with an average of 42 % and 50 %, respectively.

Climate change projections for Carpathian soda pans on the basis of photosynthesis evidence from typical diatom species.

The Carpathian Basin is home to a number of astatic soda pans which are especially vulnerable to the climate change due to their high degree of hydrological sensitivity. The photosynthetic plasticity of the three most dominant benthic diatom species (Nitzschia aurariae, N. reskovii, N.

Trait-based diatom functional diversity as an appropriate tool for understanding the effects of environmental changes in soda pans.

Saline lakes, among the most seriously endangered ecosystems, are threatened due to climate change and human activities. One valuable feature of these environments is that they constitute areas of high biodiversity. Ecologists are, therefore, under great pressure to improve their understanding of the effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on the biodiversity of saline lakes.

The impact of OTU sequence similarity threshold on diatom-based bioassessment: A case study of the rivers of Mayotte (France, Indian Ocean).

Extensive studies on the taxonomic resolution required for bioassessment purposes have determined that resolution above species level (genus, family) is sufficient for their use as indicators of relevant environmental pressures. The high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and meta-barcoding methods now used for bioassessment traditionally employ an arbitrary sequence similarity threshold (SST) around 95% or 97% to cluster sequences into operational taxonomic units, which is considered descriptive of species-level resolution. In this study, we analyzed the effect of the SST on the resulting diatom-based ecological quality index, which is based on OTU abundance distribution along a defined environmental gradient, ideally avoiding taxonomic assignments that could result in high rates of unclassified OTUs and biased final values.

Taxonomy- or trait-based ecological assessment for tropical rivers? Case study on benthic diatoms in Mayotte island (France, Indian Ocean).

Diatom-based ecological quality assessment methods have been implemented and used regularly in the Water Framework Directive. These indices use the species' abundance profiles along a specific environmental gradient, which they aim to assess. However, this approach has several problematic issues including the unstable and fast-changing diatom taxonomy.