How does eliminating mercury from artisanal and small-scale gold mining lead to achieving sustainable development goals?

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the principal anthropogenic activity that globally contributes to overloading our environment with mercury. Although the Minamata Convention, led by the United Nations, is a crucial instrument to eliminate its use progressively, novel approaches to accelerate this difficult transition are welcome. This article proposes a framework for policy-making or improvement, fostering the enforcement of mercury elimination through the lens of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on the excluded artisanal and small-scale gold miners and their dependents. We move forward with a literature review of the Artisanal and Small Mining topic, taking each SDG as a unit of analysis. Understanding the problem as a puzzle of four sets of pieces, namely: (1) social, (2) environmental, (3) economic, and (4) institutional, the paper offers potential opportunities for the decision-makers and practitioners to accelerate the substitution of this heavy metal and develop sustainable futures for the ASGM communities. We conclude by proposing a pragmatic framework that synthesizes the means, actions, and ends to accelerate a sustainable transition.     

Auxinic herbicides induce oxidative stress on Cnesterodon decemmaculatus (Pisces: Poeciliidae)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Pesticides might increase the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Dicamba (DIC) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) are auxinic...     

Boosting freshwater fish conservation with high-resolution distribution mapping across a large territory

The lack of high-resolution distribution maps for freshwater species across large extents fundamentally challenges biodiversity conservation worldwide. We devised a simple framework to delineate the distributions of freshwater fishes in a high-resolution drainage map based on stacked species distribution models and expert information. We applied this framework to the entire Chinese freshwater fish fauna (>1600 species) to examine high-resolution biodiversity patterns and reveal potential conflicts between freshwater biodiversity and anthropogenic disturbances. The correlations between spatial patterns of biodiversity facets (species richness, endemicity, and phylogenetic diversity) were all significant (r = 0.43–0.98, p < 0.001). Areas with high values of different biodiversity facets overlapped with anthropogenic disturbances. Existing protected areas (PAs), covering 22% of China's territory, protected 25–29% of fish habitats, 16–23% of species, and 30–31% of priority conservation areas. Moreover, 6–21% of the species were completely unprotected. These results suggest the need for extending the network of PAs to ensure the conservation of China's freshwater fishes and the goods and services they provide. Specifically, middle to low reaches of large rivers and their associated lakes from northeast to southwest China hosted the most diverse species assemblages and thus should be the target of future expansions of the network of PAs. More generally, our framework, which can be used to draw high-resolution freshwater biodiversity maps combining species occurrence data and expert knowledge on species distribution, provides an efficient way to design PAs regardless of the ecosystem, taxonomic group, or region considered.     

Growth of Zostera japonica in different sediment habitats of the Yellow River estuary in China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The estuarine delta of the Yellow River is a region of strong land-ocean-human interactions that undergoes a unique evolutionary process. The delta is...     

Sb release characteristics of the solid waste produced in antimony mining smelting process

Sb release characteristics of blast furnace slag, mining waste rock and tailing sand were investigated in static immersion and dynamic leaching test. These three kinds of waste samples were collected from the antimony mine in Lengshuijiang, China, produced in mining smelting process. Effects of solid/liquid ratio, sample size and pH of leaching solution on Sb release characteristics were inspected based on the analysis of scanning electron microscope, pH and EC of leachate. The optimal parameters for Sb leaching of each sample were analyzed. For blast furnace slag and mining waste rock, Sb release contents increased along with the decline of solid/liquid ratio. The maximum accumulative release contents were 42.13, 34.26 mg/kg at the solid/liquid ratio of 1:20. While Sb release content for tailing sand decreased first and then increased with the reduction of solid/liquid ratio. When the solid/liquid ratio was 1:5, the accumulative Sb release content reached the most (24.30 mg/kg). Sb release content of mining waste rock increased with the drop of leaching solution pH, with the highest accumulative release content of 26.01 mg/kg at pH 2.0. Sb release contents of blast furnace slag and tailing sand showed positive correlation with the variation of leaching solution pH. The maximum accumulative release contents of these two samples were 215.91 and 147.83 mg/kg, respectively, when leaching solution pH was 7.0. In summary, Sb release capacity of the three samples in descending order was tailing sand, blast furnace slag and mining waste rock. pH and EC of the leachate in dynamic test varied independently with the initial pH of leaching solution while showing close relationship with mineral hydrolysis in the waste.     

连续长坡路段组合线形与驾驶员瞳孔大小关系的试验分析

为了研究连续长坡路段道路线形与驾驶员瞳孔大小的关系,提高连续长坡路段行车的安全性,通过实车试验,利用眼动仪、GPS等设备采集驾驶员在某连续长坡路段上行车时的实时瞳孔直径和车速等数据,定量分析后建立了驾驶员瞳孔大小变化百分比(APCPS)与坡度、角度变化率(CCR)之间的关系模型。结果表明:在连续长坡路段上、下坡方向行车时,驾驶员的APCPS与坡度存在二次函数关系,上坡方向的APCPS随坡度增加而增加,下坡方向的APCPS随坡度增加先减小后增大;APCPS与CCR存在三次函数关系,上、下坡方向的APCPS随CCR增加均先减小然后增大后再减小;坡度与平面线形综合作用时,上、下坡方向的APCPS呈现相似的变化规律。     

16S rDNA克隆文库解析AO-MBR系统中细菌种群多样性

采用分子生物学手段16S rDNA克隆文库方法对缺氧/好氧膜生物反应器(AO-MBR)的好氧池与缺氧池中细菌进行了多样性研究.实验结果表明,好氧池污泥样品的克隆文库包括9个类群,其中变形菌(Proteobacteria)和拟杆菌(Bacteroidetes)在文库中所占比例最大,分别为37.04％和14.81％;其次是酸杆菌(Acidobacteria)、未培养菌(uncultured bacterium)、绿菌(Chlorobi)和未培养的绿弯菌(uncultured Chloroflexi bacterium)、浮霉状菌(Planctomycetes),分别为11.11％、11.11％、7.41％、7.41％和5.56％;硝化螺旋菌(Nitrospirae)和裸藻门(Euglenozoa)所占比例相对较小,均为1.85％.缺氧池样品克隆文库包括10个类群,其中变形菌(Proteobacteria)、拟杆菌(Bacteroidetes)和未培养菌(uncultured bacterium)在文库中所占比例最大,分别为27.91％、13.95％和12.79％;其次是浮霉状菌(Planctomycetes)、酸杆菌(Acidobacteria)和绿弯菌(Chloroflexi),在文库中所占比例分别为9.3％、9.3％和9.3％;硝化螺旋菌(Nitrospirae)、裸藻门(Euglenozoa)、芽单胞菌(Gemmatimonadetes)和放线菌(Actinobacteria)所占比例相对较少,分别为6.98％、8.14％、1.16％和1.16％.两池细菌的主要类群相似,但菌属及比例有所差异,变形菌是系统中的主要脱氮菌属.     

江苏省环境监测质量管理的探索与实践

针对目前交界断面水质监测与空气自动监测站质量管理工作中存在的质控难点,介绍了江苏省的解决办法。通过统一技术细节、联合监测及强化监测人员持证上岗自认定考核等手段,解决了交界断面水质监测技术纠纷;通过设立省级质管站、进行可信度评估等措施,强化空气自动监测站的质量管理。     

羟胺强化Fenton反应降解水中氯酚

针对传统Fenton体系Fe（Ⅲ）累积和pH适用范围过窄等缺点，采用羟胺（HA）强化的HA-Fenton体系，以对氯苯酚（4-CP）为目标污染物进行降解实验，考察了Fe（Ⅱ）投加量、H2O2投加量、HA投加量和溶液pH等工艺条件对4-CP去除率的影响。实验结果表明：HA-Fenton体系适用于酸性和弱酸性条件，最佳pH范围为3.0~4.0；在溶液pH为3.0、Fe（Ⅱ）投加量为5.0 μmol/L、H2O2投加量为0.4 mmol/L、HA投加量为0.20 mmol/L的最适条件下，反应10 min， 4-CP去除率达64.25 %。     

Energy flows in the coffee plantations of Costa Rica: from traditional to modern systems (1935–2010)

Regional Environmental Change - This article addresses energy flows in the coffee agro-ecosystems of Costa Rica within the context of the socio-ecological transition, between 1935 and 2010,...