Journal of Environmental Management最新文献

Bismuth-based ternary heterostructured photocatalysts have emerged as one of the most promising classes of materials for wastewater treatment, owing to their narrow band gaps, high structural versatility, and capacity to facilitate efficient charge carrier separation under solar irradiation. Recent studies demonstrate that integrating Bi₂WO₆, BiVO₄, BiOX, Bi₂MoO₆, Bi₂O₃, Bi₂S₃, or multi-bismuth phases into ternary configurations, particularly Z-scheme, S-scheme, and dual heterojunction architectures, substantially enhances photocatalytic performance by accelerating interfacial electron transport while preserving strong redox potentials. These systems consistently achieve high degradation efficiencies across dyes, pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, pesticides, and emerging contaminants, frequently outperforming binary and single-component counterparts. Key advances include the use of carbonaceous scaffolds to broaden visible-light absorption, magnetic and transition-metal components to strengthen redox cycling, and defect or vacancy engineering to intensify surface reaction kinetics. Comparative evaluation across recent reports reveals that the most efficient ternary systems often couple broad-spectrum light harvesting with strong built-in electric fields that drive directional charge migration. Despite these advances, persistent challenges remain regarding interfacial stability, secondary pollution risks, and scalability of synthesis routes. Overall, the rapidly evolving evidence indicates that bismuth-based ternary heterostructures represent a highly adaptable, high-performance platform for future solar-driven wastewater treatment, with clear opportunities for optimization through targeted band engineering, green synthesis strategies, and improved photonic utilization.

Nutrient recovery, particularly phosphorus, has gained attention as a sustainable solution to environmental and resource challenges. Wastewater treatment plants are key phosphorus reservoirs, with significant amounts found in sludge. Anaerobically digested sludge centrate (ADSC), rich in both phosphorus and nitrogen, presents an opportunity for nutrient recovery. This study investigates phosphorus recovery from ADSC through precipitation as vivianite (Fe₃(PO₄)₂·8H₂O), a promising alternative to struvite. Key factors such as pH, Fe/P molar ratio, stirring conditions, anoxic atmosphere (constant and initial N₂ injection), and ion interference were evaluated in a simulated solution. The results showed that both the Fe/P molar ratio and pH influenced vivianite formation, while stirring modes and an anoxic atmosphere provided optimal conditions for vivianite formation. An Fe/P ratio of 1.75 and a pH of 8 were selected as optimal conditions for vivianite formation. These conditions were applied to ADSC, along with an additional nitrogen recovery step using emerging membrane contactor technology. This membrane step was assessed before and after precipitation. It was observed that in both cases, recovery of both nutrients was achieved, showing more feasibility the process with nitrogen separation after vivianite precipitation. Although the presence of other precipitated minerals was detected by FESEM-EDX, vivianite formation was achieved in all cases. This study provides insight into effective strategies for sustainable nutrient recovery in ADSC streams.

Integrating well-managed grass into agricultural systems is a management target for enhancing soil carbon (C) storage in tropical agroecosystems. Yet, the mechanisms behind physical protection of soil C are not sufficiently lucid. Here we analyzed pore structure and particulate organic matter (POM) characteristics in structurally intact soil using synchrotron X-ray computed micro-tomography (μCT). We combined these analyses with bulk measurements and CO₂ respiration data to explore the interactions between pore structure and soil C characteristics in a mid-term experiment in the Southern Amazon, Brazil. The farming systems were: (i) crop succession (CS) with annual production of soybeans followed by corn; (ii) integrated crop-livestock (ICL) with soybeans and then corn intercropped with palisade grass; and (iii) well-managed pasture (MP) with continuous monoculture of palisade grass. Soils of ICL and MP exhibited higher soil C (18-27 %) and N (27-29 %) contents, along with increased microbial biomass C (25-45 %) compared to CS. Additionally, ICL and MP showed higher μCT-based porosity (26-30 %) than CS and a greater volume of pores in the 70-150 μm range, which are regarded as optimal microbial habitats. Image-determined POM fractions in ICL and MP were 71 % and 51 % higher compared to CS. The spatial distribution patterns of soil pores and POM influenced the magnitude of soil C decomposition. Greater distances to medium pores and to POM fragments in MP are likely associated with lower soil C losses via CO₂ emission, suggesting more effective soil C protection. We surmise that the intricacies of pore networks and their association with the spatial distribution of POM dictate C accrual in soils with greater presence of well-managed grass, thus providing the basis for target-oriented development of management strategies to rebuild soil C in Brazilian agriculture.

Rivers provide essential ecosystem services and support socioeconomic development. This study proposes a comprehensive river health assessment framework for the Beiluo River, Weihe River, Heihe River in the Weihe River Basin, which functions as a key ecological barrier and major socio-economic corridor in northwestern China. The framework integrates five dimensions: hydrological, chemical, biological, and morphological integrity, as well as the sustainability of social services. Fourteen representative indicators were selected through a framework-based process to capture the core physical, chemical, biological, geomorphological, and functional attributes emphasized in widely accepted river health concepts. Five dimensions were weighted using the Analytic Hierarchy Process, with sustainability of social services receiving the highest weight, followed by hydrological and chemical integrity. The results indicated that the River Health Index (RHI) of the Beiluo River, Weihe River, Heihe River improved significantly from 2017 to 2023. RHI increased from 78.65 to 88.55 in the Beiluo River, from 72.10 to 89.00 in the Weihe River, and from 77.50 to 86.65 in the Heihe River. In 2023, the Beiluo River showed low biological integrity due to upstream mining and non-point source pollution, which degraded water and sediment quality and disrupted habitats. Impaired hydrological integrity and limited social services in the Weihe River, caused by excessive water extraction and low supply reliability. The Heihe River experiences altered flow regimes and degraded habitat conditions due to reservoir operations and tourism. River health assessment effectively reflects the overall condition of rivers and identifies deficiencies, providing a scientific basis for conservation and management.

Wildfires are intensifying under climate change and increasingly compromising the resilience of Mediterranean ecosystems. Soil restoration through organic amendments has been proposed as an effective tool to mitigate soil degradation after fires, yet there is limited knowledge on how different typologies of organic amendments influence soil microbial communities and the recovery of microbial-mediated functions. This study evaluated contrasting organic amendments-straw mulch, compost, and fresh swine and poultry manures-on soil microbial diversity and enzymatic activity in burned native sclerophyllous, Mediterranean forest in central Chile, the earliest in its type experiencing effects of climate change. The study took place six months after amendment application and two years after a wildfire occurrence. Enzyme activities showed different responses according to organic amendments type: while manures strongly stimulate enzymes (urease, glucosidase, and phosphatase activities), compost and mulch promoted a gradual effect on nutrient cycling. Fungal biomass, reduced by fire, recovered best under compost and swine manure. However, organic amendments significantly reduced eukaryotic alpha diversity and differentiated communities from unburned soils and burned soils with no amendment. In contrast, only manures reduced alpha diversity in prokaryotes, while beta diversity analyses revealed that compost amended soils maintained communities closer to reference conditions. Overall, manures provided short-term functional improvements in burned soils, but compost supported a more balanced recovery, preserving microbial communities closer to unburned soils. Therefore, the compost amendment can represent a practical and ecologically safer strategy to accelerate post-fire soil restoration. Targeted application, for example through "fertile islands" in the most degraded areas, may enhance soil resilience while minimizing ecological risks in fire-sensitive landscapes.

Nano-enabled agriculture technology is crucial for advancing Sustainable Development Goals. This study investigated the combined effects foliar sprayed La₂O₃ NMs, CeO₂ NMs, and Y₂O₃ NMs on the occurrence of early blight in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) as a function of application concentrations. Results demonstrated that the disease suppression capability of La₂O₃ NMs was 3.57 % and 17.86 % greater than that with CeO₂ NMs and Y₂O₃ NMs at their optimal concentrations, respectively. Combined application of 100 mg/L La₂O₃ NMs and 100 mg/L CeO₂ NMs reduced disease severity by 60.71 %, which was 1.21-, 1.31-, and 1.89-fold greater than that of 200 mg/L La₂O₃ NMs, 100 mg/L CeO₂ NMs, and the commercial pesticide (Triziman), respectively. Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses revealed that the combined application of La₂O₃ and CeO₂ NMs simultaneously promoted multiple plant defense pathways, including the activation of disease resistance pathways dependent on salicylic acid and jasmonic acid, the enhancement of the antioxidative defense system, and the increase in the biosynthesis of flavonoids and phenolic compounds. Furthermore, the application of different NMs increased tomato yield by 47.38-64.83 %, raised total vitamin and soluble sugar content in fruits by 32.31-98.59 %, and improved the content of nutritive elements by 29.79-67.03 % compared with the infected control. These findings provide deeper mechanistic insights into how NMs enhance plant immunity and highlight their potential for broader agricultural applications.

Humus is a special form of organic matter in the soil and an increase in soil humus is of great relevance to maintaining soil carbon (C) stability and improving soil quality. While straw interlayer burial has demonstrated efficiency in saline soil amelioration through salt leaching and return suppression, its mechanistic impacts on soil organic C (SOC) and the humus C content, as well as associated drivers remains unclear. Therefore, a 4-year field experiment was conducted to clarify the impacts of varying straw interlayer (0, 6, 12, 18 Mg ha^-1) on SOC content, humic fractions (HA, humic acid; FA, fulvic acid; HU, humin), pore structure obtained by CT scanning, microbial life strategies across soil depths. After buried straw interlayers for 4 years, SL12 (12 Mg ha^-1) increased SOC content by 25-34 % at 40-55 cm compared to CK (0 Mg ha^-1). At upper soil (30-35 cm), increased >200 μm macro-porosity under SL12 and SL18 stimulated r-strategy bacteria (Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes), enriching FA and HU contributions to SOC as compared with CK. Within the interlayer (40-45 cm), SL12 and SL18 elevated oligotrophic K-strategy bacteria (Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Planctomcetes), driving lignocellulose conversion to humic precursors and subsequent HA polymerization (21 % higher HA/FA ratio in SL12 vs. CK). In deeper subsoil (50-55 cm), macro-porosity with >200 μm under SL12 and SL18 facilitated downward transport of dissolved organic C coupled with dual-pathway salinity suppression, suppressing mineralization to improve the contribution of HA and FA to SOC. This hierarchical pore-microbe interplay regulated C redistribution, maximal SOC accumulation at 40-55 cm while improving humus stability. Straw interlayers burial thus establishes an ecological engineering strategy for sustainable C management in degraded lands.

In recent years, global climate change and human activities have significantly degraded mangrove ecosystems. Developing efficient spatio-temporal change detection methods is crucial for assessing mangrove health. In this paper, we propose an automated framework with unsupervised domain adaptation capabilities, combining a Separable Transformer Neural Network with a Residual Stacking strategy (STNN-StackResNet) and an unsupervised spatio-temporal change detection model (USTC-StackNet). This approach achieves efficient modeling of mangrove evolution without manual labeling, attaining an average F1 Score of 83.75% and IoU of 72.32% across cross-domain datasets. The framework was applied to monitor the newly planted mangroves in Dongzhai Port, Hainan Province. Results indicate that the mangrove ecosystem remained ecologically stable, with the total area showing a slight increase from 662.76 hectares to 667.72 hectares. Furthermore, we quantitatively analyzed the ecological dynamics associated with typhoon disturbances for the first time. The study reveals a "pressure-recovery" cycle where ecological indices showed significant declines temporally coincident with typhoon events - specifically, CVI decreased by 9.12% and NDVI by 4.62% in 2022 - followed by a rapid recovery. This study not only provides a high-precision tool for mangrove monitoring but also offers quantitative insights into ecosystem resilience against climatic disasters.