Production, disposal, and efficient technique used in the separation of heavy metals from red meat abattoir wastewater.

The availability of clean water from the already scarce sources is threatened by continuous addition of contaminated industrial and of abattoir waste into watercourses globally. The aim of the current study was to reduce the amount of waste produced, to decrease pollution derived from discharge of effluent meat wastewater, and also to minimise environmental health risk. This was all achieved by successfully synthesising a natural biopolymer chitin chitin-chitosan derivative derived from crab shell waste.

Metal levels in two fish species from a waterbody impacted by metallurgic industries and acid mine drainage from coal mining in South Africa.

The Loskop Dam in South Africa is the most contaminated waterbody in the Olifants River which is a transboundary river that flows into Mozambique. The present study measured selected metal concentrations in the muscle of and from Loskop Dam, and assessed the human health risks associated with consumption of these fish species. Trace metals were below detection level in the surface water whereas bottom sediment exhibited relatively higher concentrations.

Where does land use matter most? Contrasting land use effects on river quality at different spatial scales.

Understanding the influence of land-use activities on river quality has been a key focus of river monitoring programs worldwide. However, defining which land-use spatial scale is relevant remains elusive. In this study, therefore, we contrasted the influence of land use on river quality using three types of land-use estimators, namely circular buffers around a monitoring site, circular buffers upstream of the monitoring site and the entire watershed area upstream of the monitoring site.

Comparative nutrient leaching capability of cattle dung biogas digestate and inorganic fertilizer under spinach cropping condition.

A field experiment was used to determine leaching capability of biogas digestate used as soil amendment in comparison to inorganic fertilizer under spinach cropping condition. The biogas digestate used in this experiment was obtained from a biogas production plant that used cattle dung as feedstock. Spinach was cultivated under three treatments, namely, biogas digestate (BD), inorganic fertilizer (IN) and control (no fertilizer or biogas digestate).

Effects of power station and abattoir on PAH input into sediments of Oji River: ecological and human health exposure risks.

This study investigated the concentration and sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the sediments of Oji River due to point sources of pollution from abattoir and power plant and determined the ecological and human health risks associated with the PAHs in the sediments. Oji River in Nigeria receives contaminants from anthropogenic activities relating to waste tires used in singeing cow meats in abattoir and preparing hides and skin for local consumption. It also receives contaminants from power distribution station where the defunct coal power plant used to be situated.

Urban sanitation in Nigeria: the past, current and future status of access, policies and institutions.

Though rated among the largest economies in sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is currently grappling with enormous socio-economic challenges such as high poverty rate, power and water supply shortages, large-scale unemployment ratio, economic recession and underperforming agricultural sector. Judging by the scale of urgent political and economic importance, urban sanitation definitely ranks low among the government's priorities. No wonder political slogans and manifestos of political parties feature provision of water supply while sanitation is conspicuously usually omitted.

Seed germination ecology of Bidens pilosa and its implications for weed management.

It is now widely recognized that Bidens pilosa has become a problematic broadleaf weed in many ecosystems across the world and, particularly in the light of recent climate change conditions, closer management strategies are required to curtail its impact on agricultural cropping. In this investigation, experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of environmental factors on the germination and emergence of B. pilosa, and also on the response of this weed to commonly available post-emergence herbicides in Australia.

Spatial assessment of drought severity in Cape Town area, South Africa.

In recent decades, drought has been identified as part of the several regular climate-related hazards happening in many African countries including South Africa, often with devastating implications on food security. Studies have shown that the earth temperature has increased over the recent years which can trigger drought occurrences and other climate-related hazards. Drought occurrence is principally a climate-related event that cannot be totally effaced though it can be managed.

Response of Chloris truncata to moisture stress, elevated carbon dioxide and herbicide application.

Herbicide resistance has been observed in Chloris truncata, an Australian native C grass and a summer-fallow weed, which is common in no-till agriculture situations where herbicides are involved in crop management. To investigate the role of drought and increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO) in determining weed growth, three trials were conducted using a 'glyphosate-resistant' and a 'glyphosate-susceptible' biotype. The first two trials tested the effect of herbicide (glyphosate) application on plant survival and growth under moisture stress and elevated CO respectively.

Ecosystem services and ecological degradation of communal wetlands in a South African biodiversity hotspot.

Wetlands provide important ecosystem services to rural communities. However, wetlands are often on communal land, so they may become degraded when individual users act to maximize their personal benefit from ecosystem services without bearing the full environmental costs of their actions. Although it is possible to manage communal resources sustainably, this depends on the dynamics of the socio-ecological system.

Population-, sex- and individual level divergence in life-history and activity patterns in an annual killifish.

Variation in life-history strategies along a slow-fast continuum is largely governed by life-history trade-offs. The pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis (POLS) expands on this idea and suggests coevolution of these traits with personality and physiology at different levels of biological organization. However, it remains unclear to what extent covariation at different levels aligns and if also behavioral patterns such as diurnal activity changes should be incorporated.

Influence of soil moisture regimes on growth, photosynthetic capacity, leaf biochemistry and reproductive capabilities of the invasive agronomic weed; Lactuca serriola.

Global temperatures are predicted to increase by 1.5-5.9°C during this century, and this change is likely to impact average rainfall, with predictions that water deficit will perhaps be the most severe threat to sustainable agriculture.

Interactive effects of 3,4-DCA and temperature on the annual killifish Nothobranchius furzeri.

Although aquatic organisms are increasingly exposed to pollutants and abnormally high temperatures as a consequence of climate change, interactive effects between those stressors remain poorly assessed. Especially in ectotherms, such as fish, increases in ambient temperature are expected to affect fitness-related traits and physiology. We used the turquoise killifish Nothobranchius furzeri to study the effects of a range of 3,4-dichloroaniline concentrations (0, 50, 100 μg/L) in combination with two temperature conditions (control and control +4 °C) during four months of exposure.

Comparative omasum anatomy in ruminants: Relationships with natural diet, digestive physiology, and general considerations on allometric investigations.

The omasum is the third forestomach compartment of pecoran ruminants. It is assumed that the re-absorption of fluid present in the forestomach digesta (that facilitates particle sorting, digestion, and harvest of microbes) is its main function, so that less diluted digesta is submitted to enzymatic digestion in the lower digestive tract. Here, we evaluate measures of omasum size (representing 84 ruminant species in the largest data set) against body mass and proxies of the natural diet (%grass) or forestomach physiology (fluid throughput), using phylogenetically controlled models.

Detection of bacterial endosymbionts in freshwater crustaceans: the applicability of non-degenerate primers to amplify the bacterial 16S rRNA gene.

Bacterial endosymbionts of aquatic invertebrates remain poorly studied. This is at least partly due to a lack of suitable techniques and primers for their identification. We designed a pair of non-degenerate primers which enabled us to amplify a fragment of ca.

Comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species Galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, Victoria, Australia.

Across many southern regions of Australia, native grasslands have become seriously threatened by human activity, with only a fraction of the original areas remaining undisturbed. In particular, the introduction and establishment of exotic invasive weeds has caused significant degradation to the ecosystems in these areas by contributing to a decrease in native plant density and diversity, and this has ultimately led to major changes to the ecosystem structure and function. One such example is Galenia pubescens.

Insights on the persistence of pines ( species) in the Late Cretaceous and their increasing dominance in the Anthropocene.

Although gymnosperms were nearly swept away by the rise of the angiosperms in the Late Cretaceous, conifers, and pines ( species) in particular, survived and regained their dominance in some habitats. Diversification of pines into fire-avoiding (subgenus ) and fire-adapted (subgenus ) species occurred in response to abiotic and biotic factors in the Late Cretaceous such as competition with emerging angiosperms and changing fire regimes. Adaptations/traits that evolved in response to angiosperm-fuelled fire regimes and stressful environments in the Late Cretaceous were key to pine success and are also contributing to a new "pine rise" in some areas in the Anthropocene.

Improving the reliability and ecological validity of pharmaceutical risk assessment: Turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) as a model in behavioral ecotoxicology.

Pharmaceuticals are essential for human well-being, but their increasing and continuous use pollutes the environment. Although behavioral ecotoxicology is increasingly advocated to assess the effects of pharmaceutical pollution on wildlife and ecosystems, a consensus on the actual environmental risks is lacking for most compounds. The main limitation is the lack of standardized reproducible tests that are based on sensitive behavioral endpoints and that accommodate a high ecological relevance.

Individual behavioral variation reflects personality divergence in the upcoming model organism .

In the animal kingdom, behavioral variation among individuals has often been reported. However, stable among-individual differences along a behavioral continuum-reflective of personality variation-have only recently become a key target of research. While a vast body of descriptive literature exists on animal personality, hypothesis-driven quantitative studies are largely deficient.

Squeezing out the last egg-annual fish increase reproductive efforts in response to a predation threat.

Both constitutive and inducible antipredator strategies are ubiquitous in nature and serve to maximize fitness under a predation threat. Inducible strategies may be favored over constitutive defenses depending on their relative cost and benefit and temporal variability in predator presence. In African temporary ponds, annual killifish of the genus are variably exposed to predators, depending on whether larger fish invade their habitat from nearby rivers during floods.

Germination ecology of Chloris truncata and its implication for weed management.

Chloris truncata is a significant weed in summer crops in the subtropical region of Australia. A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of environmental factors on germination and emergence of two populations of C. truncata.

Environmental factors effecting the germination and seedling emergence of two populations of an aggressive agricultural weed; Nassella trichotoma.

Nassella trichotoma (Nees) Hack. ex Arechav. (Serrated tussock) is an aggressive globally significant weed to agricultural and natural ecosystems.