Journal of Global Ecology and Environment
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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS ON THE HEAVY METAL CONTENT OF PROFILE SOIL OF CHALLAWA INDUSTRIAL AREA, KANO, NIGERIA
No full textThe effects of Industrial effluents on the soils resources of Challawa Industrial Area, Kano, Nigeria was studied by assessing the chemical characteristics of the natural horizons of profile pits and top soils at different distances from the effluent sludge and control site. Different samples were collected at the affected and unaffected sites and analyzed with high Powered Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. At the unaffected area, (Co), (Cd), (Zn), (Cr), (Pb) and (Cu) were generally low (0.21, 0.01, 0.31, 0.57, 0.39 and 0.03 respectively), within FEPA/WHO standards and decreased down the horizons, while at the area affected, (Cr) and (Fe) were high (3.53 and 137.51 respectively). Higher concentration of Mn was noticed at the affected area than the unaffected area. Apart from Mn and Fe that increased down the horizons and profile pits, Cr, (Pb) and (Cu) decreased down the horizon and within profiles. Cr was discovered to be the major heavy metal pollutant at the area affected by industrial effluent, and being the greatest pollutant from tannery industries, monitoring bodies should put in more efforts to ensure compliance by tannery industries by treating their effluents internally before discharge into the environment
CURRENT HEALTH AND SAFETY PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPACT ON ACCIDENTS ON NIGERIAN CONSTRUCTION CITES
No full textAccidents on construction sites in Nigeria have caused and still cause devastating effects on properties and the lives of workers, as well as affecting the delivery of projects on time and within budget. However, little has been done to address this critical issue. A study was thus carried out on the perceptions of professionals on the current health and safety (H&S) practices on Nigerian construction sites. A quantitative method was used where a survey questionnaire was administered to potential respondents. One hundred and fifty questionnaires were administered and 100 responses were ultimately collected, representing a response rate of 66.6%. The data were analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics to reveal that poor H&S practices are evident on Nigerian construction sites, particularly: the lack of commitment to safety by stakeholders, lack of governmental support, little or no diligence while enforcing safety regulations on site and lack of safety education programmes on site. Also, accidents can be attributed to many sources, chiefly non-compliance with safety regulations, carelessness of workers, weak coordination of workers on site and ineffective safety culture. The safety performance of many projects in Nigeria is still below par. As the causes of accidents in Nigerian construction are many, likewise efforts by many stakeholders are needed to address the issue. Government, professional bodies and contractors can play leading roles in bringing improvements
EFFECT OF PLANTING DENSITIES ON GROWTH AND BIOMASS OF Eucalyptus urophylla PLANTATION IN VIETNAM
No full textEucalyptus plantation has been contributing to livelihood of million people living in rural areas of Vietnam. Different planting densities lead to different growth of planted trees, biomass, and consequently value of plantation. In this study, three planting densities were tested for Eucalyptus urophylla grown in Southern and North Central, Vietnam. The growth parameters (diameter at breath height/DBH, stem height, and crown diameter/Dc) were measured and dry biomass was estimated for 3-year-old plantations. The results indicated that planting densities had significant effects on growths of DBH, height, and Dc in the North Central. While, it had significant effects on growths of DBH and height in the Southern. In both sites, planting densities had significant effects on dry biomass of a 3-year-old plantation. The highest dry biomass was 66.3 Mg ha-1 at planting density of 1,110 trees ha-1 in the Southern and it was 20.9 Mg ha-1 also at planting density of 1,110 trees ha-1 in the North Central. Comparing between two sites for all three planting densities indicated that dry biomass at the Southern was significantly higher than that in the North Central. The difference was 45.4 Mg ha-1 at planting density of 1,110 trees ha-1, 33.7 Mg ha-1 at planting density of 1,330 trees ha-1, and 20.9 Mg ha-1 at planting density of 1,660 trees ha-1. It was concluded that growing E. urophylla with planting density of 1,110 trees ha-1 should be applied for both Southern and North Central, Vietnam
EVALUATION OF SUSTAINABLE USE OF UNDERGROUND WATER IN PERI-URBAN CENTERS’ OF ELDORET MUNICIPALITY IN KENYA
No full textThe Kenyan national water quality standard recommends that water should be safe for human consumption. If not protected, ground water can easily be contaminated with many pollutants including biological pathogenic microorganisms. Waterborne diseases can be effectively controlled through proper sanitary procedures that result in use of good quality water through proper sanitary procedures. The main purpose of the study was to compare levels of pollution of ground water between 3 peri-urban centers in Eldoret Municipality; Langas, Munyaka and Huruma, using levels of coliforms and solids in underground waters as an indicator of point source pollution as varied over the dry and wet seasons. Six test sampling points were randomly selected per peri-urban area and another two water wells located above 31 m from garbage dumpsites and pit latrines were purposely selected from the three zones and served as control samples. A total of 40 samples were collected in duplicates during the dry season (January and March 2015) and another 40 samples were collected in duplicates during the wet season (April and May 2015). Standard plate count method was used for total coliforms incubated at 35±2°C for 24 hours. The total solids were determined by evaporation technique in which the total solid material was collected and determined gravimetrically. The mean total solids (TS), in each water well was within the permissible limits of 1.2 g/L. However, the means of the TS varied over the dry and wet seasons. Means, standards deviations, one way ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation analysis were used to analyze the relationship between variables in relation to seasons. Analysis of the collected data was done using JMP statistical software at 0.05 level of significance. Levels of coliforms in water wells were above the National Water Quality Standards of Nil/100 mL. Pearson`s correlation was used to test the relationship between the variables under study. The levels of Escherichia coli in well waters was positively influenced by the distance from the pit latrine and from the garbage dumpsites (r=-0.165, p=0.007) and (r=-0.246, p=0.024). There were no significant differences between the test and control samples, (ANOVA: F3, 39=0.2249; p<0.8487). During the dry season, total dissolved solids (TDS) levels of the test samples also showed no significant difference with the control sample (ANOVA: F3, 39=0.7601; p=0.5239). This study concludes that topography is a key influence on proximity of water wells to pit latrines and garbage dumpsites in the study areas, thus affecting the number of coliforms in ground water. This study recommends the construction and use of standard communal water wells, review of the 30 m location distance of water wells and other water abstraction points from pollution sources and regular monitoring of ground water quality
TREE REGENERATION PATTERN IN TROPICAL DRY EVERGREEN FORESTS ON THE COROMANDEL COAST OF INDIA UNDER VARIOUS DISTURBANCE LEVELS
No full textPresent study aim to analyze the patterns of regeneration in relation to different degrees of human disturbance in the endangered tropical dry evergreen forests. A total of 838 seedlings and 1931 saplings of 57 species were recorded in 400 sample plot. ‘Much disturbed’ sites were found to have the highest seedling species richness, with 31 species. Glycosmis mauritiana, Memecylon umbellatum, Tricalysis sphaerocarpa and Garcinia spicata were well represented as saplings and seedlings in all three categories other than HD sites. The relative proportion of adults ranged from 71% in the heavily disturbed sites to 59% in the much disturbed sites. Log sapling and seedlings densities were significantly related to log adult densities. R2 values of seedlings were similar in moderate (MD) and much disturbed (MU) sites and R2 values were lower in relatively undisturbed (RD) and heavily disturbed (HD) sites. Restoration of such endangered ecosystem requires serious attention towards its rehabilitation of its structural and functional components
POLLUTION AND HEALTH HAZARDS: ENVIRONMENTAL ISOLATES OF Enterococcus faecalis AND Enterococcus faecium CHARACTERIZED FOR VIRULENCE GENES, ANTIBIOTIC AND HEAVY METAL RESISTANCE
No full textHealthcare-associated infections have become an increasing problem. Enterococcus faecalis and E. faecium infect patients as human opportunistic pathogens. Previously, we conducted microbiological analysis at the Mololoa River from the city of Tepic in Nayarit, Mexico. Pollution comes from two different sources, sewage and municipal trash confinement leakage. We found several enterococci isolates that were both antibiotic and heavy metal resistant. In the present study, we examined 18 isolated strains from four different sites for the presence of virulence genes (asa1, gelE, hyl, esp and cylA) and determine potential pathogenic enterococci presence. We found that all isolates analyzed lacked either one or all the major virulence genes and were hemolysin negative. We show that in water bodies the presence of potential virulent strains of enterococci is to diverse and other factors may be involved for the developing of disease by this genus of bacteria
LINEAR MULTI-REGRESION MODEL FOR ESTIMATING ACTUAL DAILY EVAPOTRANSPIRATION BASED ON S-SEBI METHOD OVER CAU RIVER BASIN OF VIETNAM USING LANDSAT-7 IMAGES
No full textCalculating the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) is an important task in monitoring water balance in river basins, serving irrigation management in agriculture and in weather forecasting. In fact, it is difficult to measure ETa directly and most ETa applications are calculated using empirical-theoretical models. This paper proposes a linear multi-regression model to calculate ETa based on the relationship between ETa extracted by the Simple Surface Energy Balance Index (S-SEBI) with the surface biological-physical parameters, such as albedo, normal difference vegetation index (NDVI), surface temperature (Ts), and net surface solar radiation (Rnd) that were extracted from the Landsat-7 imagery dated November 23, 2001. The proposed model was evaluated based on ETa field observations on meteorological stations on November 4th, 2000 with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 1.585 mm/day and Mean Absolute Error (RAE) of 35.44%. After eliminating the Mean Bias Error (MBE) the model achieves accuracy with RMSE = 0.702 mm/day and MAE = 17% (model accuracy is 83%)
EVALUATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION POTENTIAL OF Chromolaena odorata AND Helianthus annuus ON SPENT OIL- POLLUTED SOIL
No full textPhytoremediation as a non-destructive and cost-effective in-situ technology for the clean-up of spent oil contaminated soils was investigated using two common plants, Chromolaena odorata (siam weed) and Helianthus annuus (sunflower). The experimental set-up was established in three locations and consisted of a system of treatment of polluted sites with Chromolaena odorata, Helianthus annuus with a separate control. Concentration of heavy metals such as Cu, Mn, Zn, Pb, Cd, and Fe were determined for plant and soil samples using the randomized complete block design (RCBD). Data collected were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan\u27s Multiple Range Test used for mean separation. The two plants grew successfully in all the experimental plots. However, there was a significant reduction of Zn, Cu, Cd, Mn, Pb and Fe in the soil and a significant absorption of Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn by Chromolaena odorata. A significant absorption of Fe and Mn by Helianthus annuus with no corresponding absorption of Pb, Cd, Cu and Zn was also evident. Chromolaena odorata absorbed more of the heavy metal contaminants than Helianthus annuus which was significant at P = 0.05. This study has established the capacity of the two plants to absorb heavy metal contaminants in the soil. They can, therefore, be recommended for use in the remediation of spent oil- polluted soils
THE IMPACT OF HERBICIDES ON FRESHWATER FUNGI ISOLATED FROM SUBMERGED WOOD
No full textThe impact of two herbicides, glyphosate and atrazine, on biomass production of freshwater fungi isolated from submerged wood in a stream located at Rumahuolu in Rivers State, Nigeria was evaluated. Fungal isolation was performed via spread plate method. The predominant isolates were exposed to varying concentrations of glyphosate (0, 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 mg/l) and atrazine (0, 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 mg/l) in a defined medium for 14 days at 28oC. The biomass production was measured as mycelial dry weight and percent inhibition or increment determined. Eight fungal genera Sporoschisma, Nigrospora, Ochroconis, Fusarium, Cladosporium, Penicillium, Trichophyton and Candida were isolated at dissimilar frequencies with Sporoschisma, Nigrospora and Ochroconis predominating. Generally, fungal growth enhanced at 10 mg/l of herbicides but repressed with increase in herbicides concentrations. The degree of increment and inhibition varied among the fungal isolates. Positive correlations were observed between herbicide concentrations and inhibition values. Fungi isolation from the decaying wood implies that they may be implicated in lignin mineralization and processing in freshwater ecosystem. The decrease in biomass production of wood-inhabiting fungal species exposed to atrazine or glyphosate concentrations greater than 10 mg/l may have negative impact on their functions in the ecosystem. Therefore, the inhibitive effect of herbicides on the fungal species may lead to accumulation of organic substrates in the ecosystem
OPTIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY OF SCRAP TIRE IN VIETNAM FROM DISCHARGE TO REUSE AND RECYCLE: CASE STUDY IN THE SOUTHEAST OF VIETNAM
No full textThe remarkable worldwide increase in the number of vehicles and the same with number of tires are produced each year, then most of which will eventually end up as waste. Vietnam is not standing outside of this trend. This study carried out investigation from discharge to reuse and recycle of scrap tire in South-East of Vietnam. The study evaluated the current issues on discharge and management of waste-tires in Vietnam. The findings from this study are most focused on waste management technologies, and some are related on policies, institutions and stakeholders: Waste tire is not completed as waste, it can be seen as a byproduct which can be reuse or as a material for other processing phase to become other useful products. Currently, Vietnam has no laws or regulations specific to the management of waste tires. The operation of the chain from discharge through collection, recycling and retread of scrap tires are operated by private sector. It still lacks of the completed management system and supports from the government agencies. These activities can bring high risk to human health and environment. A sustainable approach for the waste tire, based on reuse, recycling, and utilization of scrap tire and appropriate management, can achieve the goal of almost zero discharge of waste tires