Discover insights from thousands of peer-reviewed papers on microbial electrochemical systems
Rumeysa Cebecioglu, Dilan Akagunduz, Tunc Catal
3 Biotech · 2021
In this study, Ponceau S dye, which is one of the hazardous dyes found in industrial wastewater, was examined for hydrogen production in single chamber-free membrane-free microbial electrolysis cells at different concentrations (10-40 mg L -1 ). A gas content analysis (hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane) was measured daily using gas chromatography to determine the effects of the Ponceau S on hydrogen production levels. Hydrogen was successfully produced in the presence of Ponceau S dye, but the gas production levels were affected by the concentrations of Ponceau S. The maximum hydrogen production was measured as 18 mL at a concentration level of 20 mg L -1 . Decolorization ratios of Ponceau S were in the range of 85-100%. Hydrogen production rates increased in the presence of Ponceau S (20 mg L -1 ); however, yield (%) of the production decreased when compared to the control group. The percentage of COD removal was 94.78% in the presence of 40 mg L -1 of Ponceau S. In conclusion, hydrogen can be generated using wastewaters contaminated with azo dyes such as Ponceau S, and decolorization of the dye can be achieved, simultaneously.
Linjie Jiang, Liping Huang, Yuliang Sun
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy · 2014
Mostafa Rahimnejad, Ghasem Darzi Najafpour, Ali Asghar Ghoreyshi et al.
Journal of Microbiology · 2012
Jaecheul Yu, Sunja Cho, Sunah Kim et al.
Microbes and Environments · 2012
Tran Chien Dang, Yuan Yin, Yangyang Yu et al.
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics · 2016
Cuijie Feng, Jiangwei Li, Dan Qin et al.
PLoS ONE · 2014
Yujiao Sun, Jiane Zuo, Longtao Cui et al.
The Journal of General and Applied Microbiology · 2010
Xiaoxin Cao, Xia Huang, Xiaoyuan Zhang et al.
Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering in China · 2009
Yun-Bin Jiang, Wen-Hui Zhong, Cheng Han et al.
Frontiers in Microbiology · 2016
Hui Chen, Donghui Lu, Caiqin Wang et al.
RSC Advances · 2019
In the present study, a bioelectrochemical system (BES) was developed for 2,4-dichloronitrobenzene (DClNB) transformation.
Tae-Seon Choi, Young-Chae Song, Anna Joicy
Bioresource Technology · 2018
Diana Losantos, Martí Aliaguilla, Daniele Molognoni et al.
Cleaner Engineering and Technology · 2021
Dídac Recio-Garrido, Michel Perrier, Boris Tartakovsky
Chemical Engineering Journal · 2016
Donghao Li, Yimeng Feng, Fengxiang Li et al.
Advanced Fiber Materials · 2023
Zhufan Lin, Shaoan Cheng, Yi Sun et al.
SSRN Electronic Journal · 2022
Mohd Azwan Jenol, Mohamad Faizal Ibrahim, Ezyana Kamal Bahrin et al.
Molecules · 2019
Microbial fuel cells offer a technology for simultaneous biomass degradation and biological electricity generation. Microbial fuel cells have the ability to utilize a wide range of biomass including carbohydrates, such as starch. Sago hampas is a starchy biomass that has 58% starch content. With this significant amount of starch content in the sago hampas, it has a high potential to be utilized as a carbon source for the bioelectricity generation using microbial fuel cells by Clostridium beijerinckii SR1. The maximum power density obtained from 20 g/L of sago hampas was 73.8 mW/cm2 with stable cell voltage output of 211.7 mV. The total substrate consumed was 95.1% with the respect of 10.7% coulombic efficiency. The results obtained were almost comparable to the sago hampas hydrolysate with the maximum power density 56.5 mW/cm2. These results demonstrate the feasibility of solid biomass to be utilized for the power generation in fuel cells as well as high substrate degradation efficiency. Thus, this approach provides a promising way to exploit sago hampas for bioenergy generation.
Muhammad Amal Nurhakim, Endang Kusdiyantini, Budi Raharjo
Bioma : Berkala Ilmiah Biologi · 2016
The increases of human growth causes electrical energy demand’s expantion while the supply decreases drastically. Energy crisis had triggeredalternative renewable energy sourcesdevelopmentto substitutethe use ofoil that had beenmain energy resources for the people. Microorganisms utilization is used to produce electrical by researchers these years as an effort to actualize the goals. The system used is microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology which utilize metabolism activity from microorganisms to produce electrical energy. Microorganismswill perform metabolism bybreaking down glucose into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2).Hydrogen has a role as raw material that used in reduction reaction with oxygen until it releases electron in anoda as electrical flows source. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an example microorganisms that can utilize for produce electrical energy. This research aims to find optimal concentration for glucose as a carbon source in microbial fuel cell Saccharomyces cerevisiaeto form electrical energy. This research use S. cerevisiae as microorganisms and variation of glucose concentration as a carbon source. Parameters measured in this study is the voltage (mV) and current (mA). Research’s result shows that glucose in 10 % (w/v) concentrate forms higher results in voltage (mV) and current (mA) compare to glucose with 20% (w/v) concentrate and in the concentrate of 30% (w/v) which values each 561,833 mV and 105,133 mA. Analysis of variance with level of confidence 95% shows glucose concentrates don’t react significantly voltage but react significantly on current. Tukey HSD’s test show significant different between current that was formed by glucose in the concentrate of 10% (w/v) compared to glucose in the concentrate of 20% (w/v) and 30% (w/v).Keywords : Saccharomyces cerevisiae, microbial fuel cell (MFC), glucose, electrical energy
Alireza Abdolhossein Zadeh, Rasoul Shokri, Seyyed Reza Moaddab et al.
Bioscience Journal · 2023
A microbial fuel cell (MFC), a novel technology, is a biochemical catalyzer system that can convert the chemical energy of materials to bioelectric energy. This system can serve as a unique device for the treatment of wastewater. Based on this knowledge, we decided to study the bioenergy production ability of Actinomycete and microbial isolates in industrial glass factory wastewater as the decomposers of organic materials in this wastewater and the generation of Voltage and current in two batches and fed-batch conditions. At the most favorable condition maximum of 1.08 V (current 3.66 mA and power density 2.88 mW/m2), 81.2% chemical oxygen demand was obtained for a fed-batch system. Also, the outcomes of MFC’s essential parameters, for example, pH and TDS, were studied before and after the performance of MFC. The results showed a significant decrease after the operation of the MFC. To realize which Actinomycete were the most powerful bioelectric microorganism, the growth curve and electricity performance of three kinds of Actinomycete was selected. Results showed that the C2 would be more potent because its Voltage of 0.224 V and current of 1.187 mA possessed by it would result in an excellent power density of 141.42 mW/m2.
Rizky Drajat Prabowo, Dewi Chusniasih
Jurnal Energi dan Ketenagalistrikan · 2023
Bahan bakar fosil merupakan salah satu bentuk energi yang banyak digunakan dan mendukung hampir semua aspek energi. Bahan bakar fosil merupakan bahan bakar yang tidak dapat diperbarui, karena proses pembentukannya membutuhkan waktu jutaan tahun. Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) menghasilkan energi listrik menggunakan substrat dari komponen organik maupun anorganik, menggunakan sel mikroba sebagai katalis. Struktur dari MFC terdiri dari kompartemen anoda yang berisi sel mikroba, mediator, dan elektroda yang terpisah dari kompartemen katoda. Kompartemen katoda terdiri atas elektroda dan penerima elektron (elektron akseptor). Anoda dan katoda terhubung via sirkuit dan aliran elektron dari sel mikroba ke penerima elektron katoda. MFC dapat menggunakan substrat yang bervariasi, termasuk air limbah. Penggunaan gula sebagai substrat MFC yang menggunakan sel kapang dapat menghasilkan energi maksimum sebesar 374.4 mW/m2. Di masa depan, MFC sangat mungkin digunakan sebagai sumber energi listrik yang paling sustainable. Dalam kondisi terkontrol, MFC dapat menghasilkan energi listrik yang lebih efektif dibandingkan dengan baterai yang perlu diisi ulang sebelumnya.
Wilgince Apollon
Membranes · 2023
The over-exploitation of fossil fuels and their negative environmental impacts have attracted the attention of researchers worldwide, and efforts have been made to propose alternatives for the production of sustainable and clean energy. One proposed alternative is the implementation of bioelectrochemical systems (BESs), such as microbial fuel cells (MFCs), which are sustainable and environmentally friendly. MFCs are devices that use bacterial activity to break down organic matter while generating sustainable electricity. Furthermore, MFCs can produce bioelectricity from various substrates, including domestic wastewater (DWW), municipal wastewater (MWW), and potato and fruit wastes, reducing environmental contamination and decreasing energy consumption and treatment costs. This review focuses on recent advancements regarding the design, configuration, and operation mode of MFCs, as well as their capacity to produce bioelectricity (e.g., 2203 mW/m2) and fuels (i.e., H2: 438.7 mg/L and CH4: 358.7 mg/L). Furthermore, this review highlights practical applications, challenges, and the life-cycle assessment (LCA) of MFCs. Despite the promising biotechnological development of MFCs, great efforts should be made to implement them in a real-time and commercially viable manner.
Kristaufan Joko Pramono, Krisna Adhitya Wardana, Prima Besty Asthary et al.
JURNAL SELULOSA · 2015
Pulp and paper industry produces large amount of wastewater that has high pollution potentials. Nowadays, development of renewable energy resources is being researched. Membrane-less Microbial Fuel Cell (ML-MFC) can be an alternative for wastewater treatment and bioenergy producers of renewable electricity. This study was subjected to evaluate the performance of ML-MFC in pulp and paper wastewater treatment and to analyze the potentials production of electricity energy. ML-MFC reactors in laboratory scale used in this experiment were made of acrylic, provided with electrodes functioning as anode and cathode which have surface area of 1.4778 x 10-2 m2 and 4.926 x 10-3 m2, respectively. In this experiment, wastewater from pulp and paper mill was continuously fed into the reactor with retention time of 48 hours and organic load about 0.23 – 0.51 kg COD/m3.day. The results showed that there was potential of electricity production from pulp and paper mill’s wastewater treatment by ML-MFC. The maximum COD reduction and maximum power supply voltage that could be achieved were 38.50% and 118.8 mV, respectively. The maximum electric power obtained on the anode surface area of 1.4778 x 10-2 m2 was 8.46 mW/m2 when the electric current value was 101.50 mA/m2 and the resistance was 500 Ω.Keywords: wastewater, organic, bioconversion, electricity, membrane-less microbial fuel cell (ML-MFC) ABSTRAKIndustri pulp dan kertas menghasilkan air limbah dalam jumlah besar yang memiliki potensi pencemaran tinggi. Saat ini, upaya pengembangan sumber energi terbarukan terus dilakukan. Membraneless Microbial Fuel Cell (ML-MFC) adalah salah satu alternatif pengolahan air limbah dan penghasil bioenergi listrik yang dapat terbarukan. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengevaluasi kinerja ML-MFC dalam pengolahan air limbah pulp dan kertas proses biologi dan menganalisa potensi produksi energi listrik. Reaktor ML-MFC skala laboratorium yang digunakan dalam percobaan terbuat dari akrilik dengan rangkaian elektroda yang berfungsi sebagai anoda dengan luas permukaan 1,4778 x 10-2 m2 dan katoda dengan luas permukaan 4,926 x 10-3 m2. Pada percobaan ini, air limbah industri pulp dan kertas dialirkan melalui reaktor secara kontinu dengan waktu tinggal 48 jam dan beban organik 0,23 – 0,51 kg COD/m3.hari. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat potensi produksi energi listrik dari proses pengolahan air limbah industri pulp dan kertas oleh ML-MFC. Reduksi maksimum nilai COD dan tegangan listrik maksimum yang dapat dicapai adalah 38,50% dan 118,8 mV. Daya listrik maksimum yang diperoleh pada luas permukaan anoda sebesar 1,4778 x 10-2 m2 adalah 8,46 mW/m2 pada saat nilai arus listrik 101,50 mA/m2 dan beban resistansi 500 Ω.Kata kunci: air limbah, organik, biokonversi, energi listrik, membrane-less microbial fuel cell (ML-MFC)
Peter R. Girguis, Mark E. Nielsen, Israel Figueroa
ChemInform · 2011
Abstract Review: 83 refs.
Marianna Villano, Federico Aulenta, Mauro Majone
ChemInform · 2013
Abstract Review: 102 refs.
Zheng Ge, Qingyun Ping, Zhen He
Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology · 2013
Abstract Background Microbial fuel cells ( MFCs ) are potentially advantageous as an energy‐efficient approach to wastewater treatment; however, the quality of the MFC effluent has not been well addressed. In this study, a membrane bioelectrochemical reactor ( MBER ) was developed through integrating hollow‐fiber ultrafiltration membranes into a tubular MFC to improve the effluent quality . Results This MBER was operated with an acetate solution or domestic wastewater (primary effluent) for more than 200 days. The MBER removed 43–58% of total chemical oxygen demand ( COD ) from the acetate solution and achieved 30–36% coulombic efficiency. When treating the wastewater, the MBER was able to maintain almost 90% COD removal and an effluent turbidity <1 NTU . A strategy of periodic backwash and membrane relaxation led to a slow increase in the transmembrane pressure ( TMP ) from zero to 15 kPa in more than 40 days at hydraulic retention time ( HRT ) 36 h. However, both lower HRTs and high organic loading rates rapidly increased the transmembrane pressure . Conclusion A proof of concept of an MBER was presented and shown to be effective in contaminant removal. Preliminary energy analysis suggests that the MBER could theoretically produce sufficient energy from the acetate solution to support the pumping system. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the MBER concept and the challenges for further development of the MBER system. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry
Oskar Modin, Kensuke Fukushi
Water Science and Technology · 2012
In a bioelectrochemical system, the energy content in dissolved organic matter can be used to power the production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), which is a potentially useful chemical at wastewater treatment plants. H2O2 can be produced by the cathodic reduction of oxygen. We investigated four types of gas-diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for this purpose. A GDE made of carbon nanoparticles bound with 30% polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) (wt./wt.C) to a carbon fiber paper performed best and catalyzed H2O2 production from oxygen in air with a coulombic efficiency of 95.1%. We coupled the GDE to biological anodes in two bioelectrochemical reactors. When the anodes were fed with synthetic wastewater containing acetate they generated a current of up to ∼0.4 mA/mL total anode compartment volume. H2O2 concentrations of ∼0.2 and ∼0.5% could be produced in 5 mL catholyte in 9 and 21 h, respectively. When the anodes were fed with real wastewater, the generated current was ∼0.1 mA/mL and only 84 mg/L of H2O2 was produced.
A.N.Z. Alshehri
International Journal of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology · 2015
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are increasingly attracting attention as a sustainable technology as they convert chemical energy in organic pollutants to renewable electricity. Anthracene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) that presents a high pollution and health risk. In this study, anthracene degradation with electricity production in Single – chamber air cathode MFC was investigated with respect to values of its biodegradation and MFC performance using different inocula combinations (Anaerobic sludge (AS), Pseudomonas putida (PP), Geobacter sulfurreducens (GS), Shewanella putrefaciens(SP), mixed cultures, and combinations thereof). All the inocula showed high potentials for anthracene degradation efficiency and power density, ranged 41 – 98 % within 120 – 216h and 110.08 – 156.06 mW/m2, respectively. The best overall performing inoculum was anaerobic sludge supplemented with P. putida (AS+PP), having a degradation rate, degradation efficiency, COD removal, maximum power density and coulombic efficiency of 38 μM/d, 98 %, 83 %, 156.06 mW/m2 and 21, respectively. Effect of initial anthracene concentration was also investigated. Results indicated that increasing of initial anthracene concentration to 40 mg/L has a positive effect on both the anthracene degradation rate and the power density by 79 and 83.93 %, respectively, which attained by the best inoculum AS+PP (degradation rate of 41 μM/d and a maximum power density of 287.04 mW/m2).This study highlights the possibility of using MFCs technology to generate renewable electricity and achieve high degradation rates of anthracene simultaneously, through co-metabolism.Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(2): 151-161 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijasbt.v3i2.12731
Sunil A. Patil, Kamil Górecki, Cecilia Hägerhäll et al.
Energy & Environmental Science · 2013
Orianna Bretschger
ECS Meeting Abstracts · 2014
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have long been researched for their use as energy recovery devices during wastewater treatment. However, commercial applications of MFC systems have been challenged by high material costs and low energy recovery efficiencies. While energy densities remain low for these systems, recent work has demonstrated a reduction in capital costs, low biomass production, odor reduction, and accelerated treatment rates relative to conventional anaerobic systems. Here we describe a small pilot scale (100 gallon) anaerobic MFC system that is able to remove 88% of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and 80% of volatile suspended solids (VSS) from primary sludge in a 7 day residence time. A duplicate system was operated in parallel and held at open-circuit to determine what portion of BOD removal was associated with electrogenic activity as opposed to physical trapping or other mechanisms. The open-circuit system was only able to remove 45% of BOD and 38% of VSS in the same operational time frame. Under closed circuit conditions, operating with a 10 Ohm resistor, a maximum BOD removal rate of 1.09 kg-BOD/m3/day was achieved for primary sludge samples at ambient temperatures, while the open circuit condition showed a maximum BOD removal rate of 0.47 kg-BOD/m3/day. A coulombic efficiency of 13% was measured from the closed circuit system during maximum BOD removal. While system improvements are still required, these results represent significant progress toward the practical development of MFCs for municipal wastewater treatment and suggest that MFC technology may contribute toward realizing energy efficient water recycling. Acknowledgements: Funding for this project was provided by the California State PIER EISG program, NSF BBBE award 0933145, the Roddenberry Foundation, and the San Diego Foundation Blasker Science and Technology Award.
Hui Li, Zheng Fang
Advanced Materials Research · 2012
A double-chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) was used to dispose Dioscorea Zingiberensis wastewater and retrieve electrical energy. Both electrical performance and contaminant degradation characteristics were investigated. The potential of the MFC achieved 0.50-0.55 V over a 1000 ohm resistance, and the Coulombic efficiency was 7.01% or so. The maximum power density was about 350 mW/m2. During the operation cycle, COD was removed 82.6% and 10.9% in the anodic and cathodic chamber, respectively. In anodic chamber, simple acid, sugars and cellulose in wastewater were utilized while complicated organic matters including furanic and aromatic compounds were broken down by breaking side-chains and opening rings. In cathodic chamber, fatty ester and alkene were removed while aromatic compounds were degraded further. The results indicate that MFC provides a new approach for resource recovery treatment of Dioscorea Zingiberensis wastewater.
Hegazy Rezk, Enas Taha Sayed
Frontiers in Energy Research · 2024
BackgroundThe target of this paper is to improve the performance of the microbial electrolysis cell (MEC). The performance of MEC including bio-hydrogen production and energy recovery is depending on the values of three controlling parameters including buffer concentration, dilution factor, and applied voltage.ProblemTherefore, defining the optimal values of three controlling parameters is the challenge of the work.MethodologyIn this paper the artificial gorilla troops optimization has been combined with and ANFIS modelling to increase the bio-hydrogen production from MEC. At first, using measured data, a model is created to simulate the MEC in terms of three controlling parameters. Then, for first time, an artificial gorilla troops optimization (AGTO) has been used to determine the optimal values of buffer concentration, dilution factor, and applied voltage to boost simultaneously bio-hydrogen production and energy recovery of MEC. To demonstrate the superiority of integration between ANFIS modelling and AGTO, the obtained results are compared with RSM methodology, and artificial neural network integrated with particle swarm optimization.FindingsFor hydrogen yield model, the RMSE lowered from 67.5 using RSM to 5.562 using ANFIS (decreased by 91.7%) as compared to RSM. The R-square for prediction rises from 0.94 (using RSM) to 0.99 (using ANFIS) by about 5.32%. For the ANFIS model of energy recovery, the RMSE decreased from 31.7 to 2.83 utilising ANFIS, a decrease of 91%. The R-square for prediction rises from 0.95 (using RSM) to 0.986 (using ANFIS) by about 3.8%. Compared with measured data, the integration between ANFIS and AGTO succeed to increase the hydrogen yield from 576.3 mL/g-VS to 843.32 mL/g-VS. in sum, the total performance of the MEC has been increased by 34.74%, 29.9% and 24.38% respectively compared to measured data, RSM and ANN-PSO.
Hao Wang, Ying Zhao, Zhiyue Cai et al.
Analytical chemistry · 2026
Accurate and sensitive detection of biomarkers in complex biofluids is critical for early disease diagnosis and clinical monitoring but remains challenging due to nonspecific interference from abundant proteins and reducing agents. Here, we present a novel self-powered, anti-interference photoelectrochemical (PEC) immunosensor that combines a ferroelectric hybrid photoanode with a platinum-doped peptide hydrogel (Pt-PH) biocathode. The photoanode was fabricated by in situ transformation of TiO 2 nanorod arrays into ferroelectric BaTiO 3 (BTO), followed by electrostatic self-assembly of sulfur-doped carbon nitride (SCN) quantum dots, forming an SCN/BTO/TiO 2 ferroelectric hybrid. The spontaneous polarization of ferroelectric BTO induces an internal electric field, enhancing charge separation and visible-light-driven photocurrent generation. The biocathode employs nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) as a conductive scaffold, coated with a Pt-PH layer derived from the short-peptide Fmoc-FEFKF doped with Pt nanoparticles, providing a highly hydrated antifouling interface that effectively suppresses nonspecific protein adsorption. The split-type configuration further minimizes interference from reducing agents in real biofluids. Using neuron-specific enolase as a model biomarker, the PEC immunosensor achieves sensitive, selective, and stable detection directly in physiological samples without external bias. This work offers a promising strategy for developing next-generation self-powered PEC biosensors with reliable antifouling performance for clinical diagnostics.
Antoine Champetier
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science · 2021
The pollination of crops by domesticated bees and wild pollinators is easily and often imagined as an accidental but essential process in agriculture. The notion that pollinators are overlooked despite their essential role in food production is widespread among the general public, as well as in policy debates concerning all issues related to pollinators, ranging from regulation of pesticides to conservation of habitat for wild bees, to support of beekeeping as an industry or as a hobby. Meade was the first to formalize this notion by making pollination a canonical example of beneficial externality in economics and arguing that subsidies should be established to ensure that honeybees are provided in optimal numbers to pollinate crops. In the first two decades of the 21st century, the same argument, but this time focusing on wild pollinators, has been proposed and supported by a large and growing literature in conservation ecology. However, a thorough review of contributions on the economics of pollination reveals several misconceptions behind the appealing fable of pollination externalities. The most striking rebuttal of Meade’s argument comes from the study of pollination markets, where beekeepers and crop growers engage in voluntary transactions called pollination contracts. A small economics literature formalizes the issue of incentives solved by these transactions and provides a detailed empirical analysis of many complex aspects, such as the establishment of standards for the monitoring of bee densities or the impact of seasonality of blooms and bee population dynamics on pollination prices. Outside pollination markets, economists have made rather sparse and partial contributions to several other important issues related to pollination in agriculture, such as valuation of pollination services, conservation of wild pollinators, and regulation of pesticides that impact pollinators. On these topics, studies have largely been published in non-economics journals and economists stand to make valuable contributions by applying and popularizing the concepts of incentive design, information costs, and other key insights of environmental economics in the study of pollination.
Futoshi Nakamura
Environmental Science · 2014
The word “riparian” is derived from the Latin word “riparius,” meaning of or belonging to the bank of a river. “Riparian zone” refers to a broader zone spanning from the riverbank to the floodplains; it occasionally includes hill slopes that may influence the stream ecosystem. The term can also be used to describe wetlands and lakeshores. In this article, however, the discussion is confined to areas associated with stream/river courses, although some principles are applicable to other riparian ecosystems and their management. A riparian zone extends from headwater streams to lowland rivers (longitudinally), from surface waters to groundwater (vertically), and from stream banks to hillside slopes (transversely). A riparian zone consists of diverse, dynamic, and complex biophysical landscape elements that provide essential habitats for various terrestrial and aquatic organisms in all or specific stages of their life cycles. Thus, biodiversity in a riparian zone is generally higher than in upland ecosystems, and riparian habitat specialists increase the entire regional biodiversity (gamma diversity) at the watershed scale. Ecological functions (or ecosystem services) of the riparian zone have been studied since the early 1970s. Appropriate riparian buffer width has also been discussed with respect to creating guidelines for stream conservation. Currently, a riparian zone is defined as an aquatic and terrestrial interface or ecotone, emphasizing its ecological functions. Productive riparian forests have been harvested for timber production in headwater basins and deforested by farmland development and cattle grazing in alluvial floodplains. Additionally, riparian forests have been removed for channelization and road construction, which decreases buffering and shading effects. As a result, sediment, fertilizers, pesticides, and other contaminants pollute streams and rivers, which also experience increases in water temperature. These abiotic changes collectively exert detrimental effects on fish and other aquatic organisms. Today, the riparian zone is recognized as a key ecotone for watershed management; therefore, the conservation and restoration of these zones are discussed in the context of ecosystem management at the landscape level.
Peter Convey
Environmental Science · 2019
Antarctica originally formed part of the southern supercontinent, Gondwana, and its fossil record shows that the continent hosted cool temperate and even subtropical forests, dinosaurs, early mammals, and many other biota, despite lying at high southern paleolatitudes for over 100 My. The Antarctica of today is a continent of extremes, inspiring awe, trepidation, and superlatives from those privileged to experience it. It is certainly a forbidding place, more than twice the area of Australia, distant and isolated from other southern continents, with around 0.2 percent of its area ever exposed from permanent ice and snow and covered on average with ice more than 2 kilometers thick. In winter, the surface of an area of ocean of approximately the same size as the continent freezes around it, and throughout the year ice is one of the major drivers of physical and biological processes in the Southern Ocean. Antarctica is also distinct among the Earth’s continents, being the only one not to have ever had a natural human population, and only being discovered and explored over the last one to two centuries. Even now, the human population is limited to the temporary residents of national research stations (about five thousand in summer and one thousand in winter), augmented by thirty to forty thousand mostly ship-based tourist visitors in the austral summer. At least to human perception, the environments of the polar regions are challenging to life. Organisms that live on land in Antarctica today must survive chronic, highly variable and extreme environmental stresses, in particular low temperatures, desiccation, high winds, and a harsh radiation climate. At latitudes beyond the Antarctic Circle, extreme seasonality is driven by the sun remaining permanently below the horizon for up to several months during winter and, conversely, above the horizon in summer. In winter terrestrial habitats experience extremely low air temperatures, typically −40 to −60°C or lower (the lowest instrumentally recorded temperature on Earth is −89.2°C, at Vostok Station on the Antarctic polar plateau). As well as its extreme climate, parts of Antarctica, in particular the Antarctic Peninsula region, have been facing rates of regional climate change in recent decades that are the most rapid in the Southern Hemisphere, as well as the consequences of the anthropogenically caused stratospheric ozone hole. These provide both further challenges to the organisms native to the continent and its surrounding oceans, and a test-bed or proxy for understanding the consequences of change for organisms and ecosystems globally. Terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity, the primary focus of this chapter, are generally depauperate, primarily comprised of cryptic and microscopic groups that are often overlooked except by specialists. Antarctic marine ecosystems, in contrast and despite also facing extreme seasonality and chronic exposure to near-freezing temperatures, can be highly diverse and comprise considerable biomass, possibly second only to tropical coral reefs.
Kimberly M. Meitzen
Environmental Science · 2015
Geography is the study of the earth, including the physical environment, humans, natural and cultural places/regions, and the complex relationships among human-environment interactions. Geography is relevant to the environmental sciences for many reasons but particularly for its focus on distributions of various environmental- and human-related interactions and the factors controlling such distributions over varied spatial and temporal scales. Geography as an applied discipline provides many field-based and geospatial computational methods, techniques, and tools for analyzing local to global earth surface interactions. Environmental science benefits from these contributions. Geography inherently spans the physical and social sciences, commonly integrating aspects of each as they influence one another. This selection of resources focuses on the subdisciplines of geography that are distinctly environmental, including applied and basic process-based physical geography, human-environmental interactions, geographic information sciences, and considerations of scale. Physical geography is the study of the natural environment and all the components and processes that interact across the earth’s surface to influence the distribution and development of natural phenomena, including weather, climate, landforms, soils, plants, and animals. Physical geography is traditionally subdivided by the three major research areas: climatology, geomorphology, and biogeography. Climatology is the study of weather and climate processes and energy fluxes and the factors that control spatial and temporal variations in temperature and precipitation; such controls range from local topographic influences to global wind and ocean current circulation patterns, to human-influenced climate change. Geomorphology is the study of landforms and the processes (water, wind, ice, tectonics, etc.) that shape different erosional and depositional features of the earth surface. Geomorphology includes (but is not limited to) the study of rivers, mountains, coasts, glaciers, and many other earth surface features and landscapes. Biogeography is the study of the distributions of plants and animals (avian, terrestrial, marine, and freshwater organisms), their interactions within an ecosystem or landscape, and the factors controlling their presence and resilience. Climatology, geomorphology, and biogeography can all be examined across a range of spatial and temporal scales, and there is often an emphasis on explaining and quantifying how natural phenomena within these disciplines change over space and time and how they are influenced directly and indirectly by humans. Human-environmental geography includes natural hazards, environmental management, nature-society interactions, and the global environment. Geographic information sciences include GIS (geographic information systems) and remote sensing technologies designed for studying the earth surface environment. Although not a distinct subdiscipline, the concept of scale and the spatial and temporal dimensions of scale are a central tenet of most geography research. Global environmental change, as influenced by physical and human influences and interactions, is a more recent area of study within geography that is rapidly evolving.
Jean-Louis Weber
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science · 2018
Environmental accounting is an attempt to broaden the scope of the accounting frameworks used to assess economic performance, to take stock of elements that are not recorded in public or private accounting books. These gaps occur because the various costs of using nature are not captured, being considered, in many cases, as externalities that can be forwarded to others or postponed. Positive externalities—the natural resource—are depleted with no recording in National Accounts (while companies do record them as depreciation elements). Depletion of renewable resource results in degradation of the environment, which adds to negative externalities resulting from pollution and fragmentation of cyclic and living systems. Degradation, or its financial counterpart in depreciation, is not recorded at all. Therefore, the indicators of production, income, consumption, saving, investment, and debts on which many economic decisions are taken are flawed, or at least incomplete and sometimes misleading, when immediate benefits are in fact losses in the long run, when we consume the reproductive functions of our capital. Although national accounting has been an important driving force in change, environmental accounting encompasses all accounting frameworks including national accounts, financial accounting standards, and accounts established to assess the costs and benefits of plans and projects. There are several approaches to economic environmental accounting at the national level. Of these approaches, one purpose is the calculation of genuine economic welfare by taking into account losses from environmental damage caused by economic activity and gains from unrecorded services provided by Nature. Here, particular attention is given to the calculation of a “Green GDP” or “Adjusted National Income” and/or “Genuine Savings” as well as natural assets value and depletion. A different view considers the damages caused to renewable natural capital and the resulting maintenance and restoration costs. Besides approaches based on benefits and costs, more descriptive accounts in physical units are produced with the purpose of assessing resource use efficiency. With regard to natural assets, the focus can be on assets directly used by the economy, or more broadly, on ecosystem capacity to deliver services, ecosystem resilience, and its possible degradation. These different approaches are not necessarily contradictory, although controversies can be noted in the literature. The discussion focuses on issues such as the legitimacy of combining values obtained with shadow prices (needed to value the elements that are not priced by the market) with the transaction values recorded in the national accounts, the relative importance of accounts in monetary vs. physical units, and ultimately, the goals for environmental accounting. These goals include assessing the sustainability of the economy in terms of conservation (or increase) of the net income flow and total economic wealth (the weak sustainability paradigm), in relation to the sustainability of the ecosystem, which supports livelihoods and well-being in the broader sense ( strong sustainability ). In 2012, the UN Statistical Commission adopted an international statistical standard called, the “System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Central Framework” (SEEA CF). The SEEA CF covers only items for which enough experience exists to be proposed for implementation by national statistical offices. A second volume on SEEA-Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EEA) was added in 2013 to supplement the SEEA CF with a research agenda and the development of tests. Experiments of the SEEA-EEA are developing at the initiative of the World Bank (WAVES), UN Environment Programme (VANTAGE, ProEcoServ), or the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (SEEA-Ecosystem Natural Capital Accounts-Quick Start Package [ENCA-QSP]). Beside the SEEA and in relation to it, other environmental accounting frameworks have been developed for specific purposes, including material flow accounting (MFA), which is now a regular framework at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to report on the Green Growth strategy, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for the the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), reporting greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration. Can be considered as well the Ecological Footprint accounts, which aim at raising awareness that our resource use is above what the planet can deliver, or the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, which presents tables and an overall assessment in an accounting style. Environmental accounting is also a subject of interest for business, both as a way to assess impacts—costs and benefits of projects—and to define new accounting standards to assess their long term performance and risks.
Ellen Wohl
Environmental Science · 2016
Environmental scientist activist is not an established phrase. Here it designates individuals who begin their careers as professional scientists and become concerned about the loss of natural ecosystems or species, or environmental degradation and associated health effects. This concern gives rise to activism on behalf of environmental protection and enhancing public awareness of environmental issues. For some, activism takes the form of writing for a popular audience. Others become widely recognized figures who appear in documentary films or television shows. Some of the scientist activists are associated with a particular environment, such as Eugenie Clark and Sylvia Earle as advocates for protection of marine ecosystems. Others are noted for their expertise and activism in relation to a specific issue, such as Theo Colborn, Sandra Steingraber, and Devra Davis for environmental contamination or Hansen for climate change. Dian Fossey and Birutė Galdikas are associated with particular groups of animals—gorillas and chimpanzees, respectively. Others, such as Aldo Leopold and E. O. Wilson, are associated with a broader spectrum of environmental issues. Some of the individuals in this article speak out primarily based on their own research, whereas others have only a brief research career and draw from a wider base of published studies. Scientist activists are largely a 20th- and 21st-century phenomenon. Although scientifically trained individuals such as George Perkins Marsh argued for environmental preservation during the 19th century, environmental advocacy by professional scientists became more widespread during the 20th century. This likely reflects the rapid increase in the number of professional scientists since World War II, as well as widespread environmental degradation. As more scientists trained in chemistry, biology, and other environmental disciplines become aware of the threats facing ecosystems, wild organisms, and human health, the urge to communicate this awareness drives environmental activism. Two themes emerge: the fundamental reliance of humans on natural ecosystems and ecosystem services, and the shared traits of humans and other organisms. From Leopold’s articulation of the land ethic, to Wilson’s arguments for protecting biodiversity, the scientists who have become activists argue for the critical importance of protecting functional ecosystems in order to insure human survival. In addition, humans have traditionally distinguished themselves from other species based on traits such as communication, construction and use of tools, learned behavior, and distinctive personalities. As biologists including Fossey, Galdikas, and Schaller have documented the same traits in other species and raised public awareness of these traits, many people have begun to rethink the intrinsic right of other species to exist.
Paul A. Keddy
Environmental Science · 2016
Wetlands have always influenced humans. Early civilizations first arose along the edges of rivers in the fertile soils of floodplains. Wetlands also produce many benefits for humans—along with fertile soils for agriculture, they provide food such as fish and water birds, and, of course, freshwater. Additionally, wetlands have other vital roles that are less obvious. They produce oxygen, store carbon, and process nitrogen. Since wetlands form at the interface of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, they possess features of both. They are often overlooked in standard books, since terrestrial ecologists focus on drier habitats, while limnologists focus on deep water. Shallow water, and seasonally flooded areas, fall comfortably into neither category. All wetlands share one causal factor: flooding. While wetlands may be highly variable in appearance and species composition, flooding produces distinctive soil processes and adaptations of the biota. Thus wetlands and water are inseparable. This treatment will first introduce you to some basic overviews that explain what a wetland is, what different kinds of wetlands exist, and some key processes that occur within them (General Guides and Introductions). Then we will turn to causal factors: flooding creates wetlands, so it receives a full section. Then we will consider how nutrient availability modifies wetlands. Other Casual Factors, such as salinity, competition, herbivory, and roads, are combined into a third section. Having provided this foundation, we will look at the global distributions (Geography of Wetlands). By this point, you will know what a wetland is, where they occur, and the main factors that affect their abundance and composition. We will then explore two more specialized topics. First, monographs are identified that apply to particular regions of the Earth (Regional Monographs). Second, we look at aquatic plants; they are a relatively small group with important implications for the understanding of wetlands as a whole (Aquatic Plants). We close with a section on conservation of wetlands. Two general obstacles must be met in coming to grips with the scientific literature in this field. First, much of the work on wetlands is scattered across ecological journals and may not even appear under key word searches for wetland; instead, material may appear under a term such as bog, fen, shoreline, lake, floodplain, pothole, playa, peatland, or mire (or a dozen other terms). Second, this discipline seems to have attracted a large number of conference symposia, the findings of which are recorded often in expensive books with a haphazard collection of papers, written by a haphazard collection of people, with no unifying theme whatsoever except that all deal with wet areas. Hence, the need is pressing for a few general principles to structure one’s knowledge. Here we focus on general causal factors and their relative importance.
David Benson, Andrew Jordan
Environmental Science · 2017
Although manifestly not a state, the European Union (EU) has evolved from its origins as a trade-based economic organization to become a supra-national political body that regulates across multiple policy sectors in a state-like manner. Nowhere is this regulatory influence more pronounced than in relation to the environment, where the EU now effectively determines the national policy of its member states in areas as diverse as air quality, water pollution, habitat protection, and genetically modified organisms. Countries outside of the EU are also increasingly influenced by its policy norms. Indeed, the EU is widely recognized as an international environmental policy entrepreneur, particularly in relation to climate policy. What is even more remarkable is that this broad environmental acquis communautaire, or corpus of policy and law, has been assembled in the space of just four decades. Up until the early 1970s, environmental concerns were primarily governed at the national and/or sub-national levels in Europe. Environmental measures that were adopted by the European Economic Commission (EEC) were overtly aimed at trade harmonization within a common market. As new, and more costly, regulatory measures were adopted, conflicts erupted with member states. These battles continued into the 1990s, with member states invoking the principle of subsidiarity to slow down the pace of integration. By the 2000s, EU policy had reached a state of maturity. Despite attempts by more economically liberal governments and industrial actors to roll back policy expansion, the EU sought to shift the emphasis of policymaking toward more holistic responses to sustainable development issues. Economic austerity has, to an extent, slowed the pace of policy expansion but the future of the sector is likely to witness greater experimentation with novel policy instruments and a gradual merging of environmental, climate and energy policy objectives. In this respect, EU environmental policy remains a work in progress. A growing literature on these topics has emerged since the late 20th century. Firstly, several key texts have been published to provide an overview of the sector. Secondly, the literature has also focused more specifically on political decision-making, including the institutional aspects of policymaking. Thirdly, scholars have researched individual policies or policy subsectors, often using them to understand integration through time. Fourthly, empirical work has formed the basis of theory testing or theory building, using perspectives imported from comparative (national) politics and European integration. Finally, research has engaged with the process of environmental governing across multiple institutional levels, including understanding the implementation of measures and how member states are being Europeanized. This overview of the published literature is structured according to these strands.
Douglas Sheflin
Environmental Science · 2025
What follows is a partial list of major works in the field of environmental history that identify key figures and detail their impacts on US history. The bulk of these entries are relatively recent, given the newness of the field, and they benefit from borrowing elements of social, political, economic, and cultural history to better explain these individuals and their contexts. These studies also profit from the turn in historical writing generally away from traditional, linear biographies to a more narrative style that focuses on contextualizing individuals and explaining their impact with more sensitivity to why and how they carried such influence during their lives and as part of their legacies. This bibliography is separated into public and private figures, with the former emphasizing studies that investigate the role of American politicians, particularly executives, and employees of the federal government and the latter instead focused on private figures and non-governmental actors, including several activists and organizations devoted to environmental justice. This shift in attention toward individual and non-state actors reflects trends in the discipline more broadly. It especially demonstrates the impact that social history has had on how environmental historians investigate the past. For example, recent studies of prominent figures casts a much wider net in emphasizing the role of women and people of color, and their influence on issues like conservation and the establishment of national parks. Historiography has also tended to move away from government-led conservation and preservation policies and reforms to address the growth of environmentalism in the postwar period. This shift is also reflected in the growing body of work detailing issues related to climate change and environmental justice. Much of that recent work investigates movements rather than individuals, as the tendency is to look broadly at the community or organization or agency before then conducting studies of prominent figures. This does provide some benefit, though, because one consistent theme for most of the works on this list is an attempt by the author to contextualize individuals and connect them to broader communities and conversations. The ability to then draw those connections provides opportunities to better understand the periods and eras during which these figures had an impact. As a result, most of these works excel at finding balance between emphasis on the individual and attention to his or her impact on US history more broadly.