Publications by authors named "YuanZheng Zhai"

Urban rivers are the main water bodies humans frequently come into contact with, so the risks posed are closely monitored. Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) residues in reclaimed water pose serious risks to human health. There are urgent needs to improve the understanding of distribution of and risks posed by ARGs in urban rivers.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on how riparian zones, crucial for nitrate removal, are affected by natural organic compounds and their influence on microbial communities, highlighting the need for more research in this area.
  • Different carbon sources were tested for their effectiveness in degrading nitrate, with butyric acid showing the highest efficiency, although it led to nitrogen cycling rather than complete removal.
  • Microbial communities responded variably to carbon conditions, with some promoting denitrification and others facilitating nitrification, indicating that carbon source selection significantly impacts nitrogen cycling processes in these environments.
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The use of permeable reactive bio-barriers (Bio-PRBs) is a developing method for remediation of uranium groundwater pollution. However, some remediation effects are difficult to estimate when because of the subsurface environment. Advanced knowledge of uranium migration and reactions in Bio-PRBs is crucial for successful practical application.

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Severe groundwater pollution has necessitated prioritizing the prevention and control of groundwater pollution (PCGP). The fundamental strategy of PCGP involves identifying priority areas. Vulnerability assessment, such as DRASTIC, and its extension, pollution risk assessment, have been developed to guide PCGP.

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Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been proven to effectively remove antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) at different experimental scales; however, there is still a lack of researches on the removal and monitoring of ARGs during the actual operation of full-scale CWs. To fill this gap, this study selected the Annan constructed wetland in Beijing as a case study and utilized quantitative sequencing, metagenomic analysis, and other technical methods to determine characteristics of ARGs in CWs during different operating periods. Furthermore, we analysed the overall removal characteristics of ARGs in the CW during different operating periods and differences of ARG distribution in three media.

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The source diversity and health risk of trace elements (TEs) in soil make it necessary to reveal the relationship between pollution, source, and risk. However, neglect of spatial heterogeneity restricts the reliability of existing identification methods. In this study, spatial heterogeneity is proposed as a necessary and feasible factor for accurately dissecting the pollution-source-risk link of soil TEs.

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Significant research is focused on the ability of riparian zones to reduce groundwater nitrate contamination. Owing to the extremely high redox activity of nitrate, naturally existing electron donors, such as organic matter and iron minerals, are crucial in facilitating nitrate reduction in the riparian zone. Here, we examined the coexistence of magnetite, an iron mineral, and nitrate, a frequently observed coexisting system in sediments, to investigate nitrate reduction features at various C/N ratios and evaluate the response of microbial communities to these settings.

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In aquifers, the sequestration and transformation of organic carbon are closely associated with soil iron oxides and can facilitate the release of iron ions from iron oxide minerals. There is a strong interaction between dissolved organic matter (DOM) and iron oxide minerals in aquifers, but the extent to which iron is activated by DOM exposure to active iron minerals in natural aquifers, the microscopic distribution of minerals on the surface, and the mechanisms involved in DOM molecular transformation are currently unclear. This study investigated the nonbiological reduction transformation and coupled adsorption of iron oxide minerals in aquifers containing DOM from both macro- and micro perspectives.

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Nonpoint source pollution caused by agricultural activities has long attracted widespread attention from people in society and academia. Many studies have found that human activities not only convey exogenous pollutants into aquifers but also affect the mobilization and transport of geogenic pollutants in aquifers. Geogenic groundwater with high phosphorus concentrations has been found, but it is unclear whether the changes in hydrogeochemical conditions caused by flood irrigation in paddy fields affect the fate of phosphorus.

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A new innovative methodology system framework for source apportionment and source-specific risk assessment has been proposed and actively applied to identify the contamination characteristics, oriented sources and health risks associated with contamination levels of Heavy metals (HMs) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils, a typical cold agricultural region in Northeastern China. To achieve this meaningful goal, a large-scale dataset including 1780 top soil samples, 10 HMs and 16 priority PAHs has been organized and collected from a typical study area in China. The total concentrations of the 10 selected HMs in study area range from 0.

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Combined remediation technologies are increasingly being considered to uranium contaminated groundwater, such as the joint utilize of permeable reactive bio-barrier (Bio-PRB) and electrokinetic remediation (EKR). While the assessment of uranium plume evolution in the combined remediation system (CRS) have often been impeded by insufficient understanding of multi-physical field superposition. Therefore, advanced knowledge in multi-physical field coupling in groundwater flow will be crucial to the practical application of these techniques.

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Microbial community, as the decomposers of constructed wetland (CW), plays crucial role in biodegradation and biotransformation of pollutants, nutrient cycling and the maintenance of ecosystem balance. In this study, 9 water samples, 6 sediment samples, and 8 plant samples were collected in Annan CW, which has the functions of water treatment and wetland culture park. The characteristics of microbial community structure in different media were illustrated by using of high-throughput sequencing-based metagenomics approach and statistical analysis.

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Hyporheic zone (HZ) systems have a natural purification capacity, and they are commonly used to provide high quality drinking water. However, the presence of organic contaminants in HZ systems in anaerobic environments causes the aquifer sediments to release metals (e.g.

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Methyl parathion (MP) is a typical organophosphorus pesticide that is widely used worldwide, and hydrolysis, oxidation and reduction are the main abiotic degradation processes. Manganese dioxide (MnO) and organic acid can participate in various geochemical processes of pollutants, a reaction system was constructed to degrade MP using δ-MnO and oxalic acid. The δ-MnO/oxalic acid reaction system could efficiently degrade MP, and the removal rate of MP (20 μM) reached 67.

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To better protect lacustrine ecologies and understand the evolutionary process of lake environments, it is critical to study the interacting mechanisms between lakes and the surrounding groundwater. The Wuliangsu Lake watershed is the largest wetland in the Yellow River basin and is the discharge area of the Hetao Irrigation District (HID), which is one of the three largest agricultural production areas in China. Due to the influence of human activities, the discharge water from the HID has led to the deterioration of the Wuliangsu Lake ecology and the degradation of the lake environment.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A refined groundwater flow model was developed for Northern China Plain, demonstrating that EWR can significantly boost aquifer recovery, contributing over 70% in some areas.
  • * Scenario analysis showed EWR activities can increase groundwater levels by 4.08 to 8.57 meters and revealed potential groundwater pollution risks from 14 informal landfills, highlighting both benefits and drawbacks of EWR.
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Riverbank filtration (RBF) constitutes an important part of the water cycle, which involves active natural filtration leading to pollution of river water being intercepted and retained. The RBF has the function of water purification, but retention of exogenous pollutants in the RBF system complicates biogeochemical processes due to the presence of primary active components. In this study, we verified the essential role of microbial mediation during the interactions between primary Fe minerals in the RBF system and dissolved organic matter (DOM) in river water based on lab-scale experiments.

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Due to extensive water exchanges and abundant active biochemical compositions, active and complex hydrogeochemical processes often exist in riverbank filtration (RBF). The distribution of microbes is considered to be profoundly affected by these processes and is considered to impact the hydrogeochemical processes and the migration and transformation of water pollutants in turn and then impact the water quality. The distribution of microbes and their response to the physiochemical properties along a vertical RBF profile perpendicular to the Songhua River in Northeast China was explored by using 16 S rRNA and redundancy analysis (RDA).

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Article Synopsis
  • An analytical algorithm called FPVB was developed to assess the movement of light nonaqueous-phase liquid (LNAPL) from soil to groundwater by integrating factors like migration, precipitation, and natural degradation.
  • Sandbox and soil column experiments helped identify the behavior and characteristics of LNAPL, which were crucial for verifying the FPVB algorithm's performance.
  • The FPVB algorithm effectively simulated pollution scenarios at real sites, demonstrating its ability to evaluate the extent of contamination with minimal data on the specific leakage event.
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Ephemeral rivers commonly occur in regions with a shortage of water resources, and their channel configuration tends to change substantially owing to long drying times and artificial sand extraction. During short-term water conveyance, water storage in large potholes and leakage along the dry riverbed retards the flow, which is detrimental for the river landscape and ecological water demand. The objective of this study is to evaluate the flow process corresponding to a certain release scheme.

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The groundwater in many aquifers contains elevated concentrations of iron (Fe). Although much of this Fe is from its release from water-bearing sediments under natural environmental conditions, sufficient evidence is lacking to clarify whether anthropogenic pollutants, such as dissolved organic matter (DOM), can increase this natural release. In this time series and comparative analysis study, an Fe increasing effect was verified through laboratory leaching tests.

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Heavy metals pollution in groundwater and the resulting health risks have always been an environmental research hotspot. However, the available information regarding this topic and associated methods is still limited. This study collected 98 groundwater samples from a typical agricultural area of Songnen Plain in different seasons.

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Earlier mechanistic studies of many prohibited flame retardants (FRs) highlighted their thyroid hormone-disrupting activity through nuclear thyroid hormone receptors (nTRs), whereas some alternative FRs such as organophosphate esters (OPEs) exerted weak nTR-disrupting effects. However, an increasing number of studies have revealed that OPEs also exert thyroid hormone-disrupting effects, and the underlying mechanism is unclear. Herein, the thyroid hormone-disrupting effects and mechanisms of 8 typical OPEs were investigated using integrated , , and assays.

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Groundwater is an important source of water, even the only source in some arid areas. However, climate changing and ecosystem damage induced by pollution aggravate water resource crisis. The "polluter pays" principle is deeply rooted in efforts to manage the polluted sites, particularly in the soil-groundwater environment.

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Anthropogenic pollutants (organic nitrogen and ammonia) can change the dynamic balances of hydrogeochemical components of groundwater, and this can affect the fates of the pollutants and groundwater quality. The aim of this paper is to assess the long-term impact of pollutants on groundwater component concentrations and species in three sites that has been polluted with illegal discharge wastewater containing organic nitrogen and ammonia, in order to reveal the interactions between nitrogen species and Mn. We analyzed semi-monthly groundwater data from three sites in northwestern China over a long period of time (2015-2020) by using statistical analyses, correlation analyses, and a correlation co-occurrence network method.

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