Effect of arsenic contaminated irrigation water on Lens culinaris L. and toxicity assessment using lux marked biosensor.

Contamination of irrigation water represents a major constraint to Bangladesh agriculture, resulting in elevated levels in the terrestrial systems. Lux bacterial biosensor technology has previously been used to measure the toxicity of metals in various environmental matrices. While arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi have their most significant effect on phosphorus uptake, but showed alleviated metal toxicity to the host plant.

Factors affecting benthic impacts at Scottish fish farms.

The factors affecting patterns of benthic [seabed] biology and chemistry around 50 Scottish fish farms were investigated using linear mixed-effects models that account for inherent correlations between observations from the same farm. The abundance of benthic macrofauna and sediment concentrations of organic carbon were both influenced by a significant, albeit weak, interaction between farm size, defined as the maximum weight of fish permitted on site at any one time, and current speed. Above a farm size threshold of between 800 and 1000 t, the magnitude of effects at farms located in areas of elevated current speeds were greater than at equivalent farms located in more quiescent waters.

Characterizing Pb mobilization from upland soils to streams using (206)Pb/(207)Pb isotopic ratios.

Anthropogenically deposited lead (Pb) binds efficiently to soil organic matter, which can be mobilized through hydrologically mediated mechanisms, with implications for ecological and potable quality of receiving waters. Lead isotopic ((206)Pb/(207)Pb) ratios change down peat profiles as a consequence of long-term temporal variation in depositional sources, each with distinctive isotopic signatures. This study characterizes differential Pb transport mechanisms from deposition to streams at two small catchments with contrasting soil types in upland Wales, U.

The role of decision support for bioremediation strategies, exemplified by hydrocarbons for in site and ex situ procedures.

Despite the widespread availability of state-of-the-art biological techniques, remediation practitioners have been slow to adopt these technologies to assist in designing or indeed monitoring remediation strategies. In part, this is because practitioners are driven by cost and fail to see the benefit of emerging technologies, and in part because most companies have only a small portfolio of procedures available to them. Here, we review the component parts required to design a decision support tool, appraise one that the authors have developed and critically evaluate its application to case studies.

Mycorrhizas and biomass crops: opportunities for future sustainable development.

Central to soil health and plant productivity in natural ecosystems are in situ soil microbial communities, of which mycorrhizal fungi are an integral component, regulating nutrient transfer between plants and the surrounding soil via extensive mycelial networks. Such networks are supported by plant-derived carbon and are likely to be enhanced under coppiced biomass plantations, a forestry practice that has been highlighted recently as a viable means of providing an alternative source of energy to fossil fuels, with potentially favourable consequences for carbon mitigation. Here, we explore ways in which biomass forestry, in conjunction with mycorrhizal fungi, can offer a more holistic approach to addressing several topical environmental issues, including 'carbon-neutral' energy, ecologically sustainable land management and CO(2) sequestration.