Metal Sulfide Nanomaterials for Environmental Applications presents the fundamentals necessary to understand the latest developments and possibilities of applied use, specifically for chemical detection/sensing and monitoring in air, soil, and water matrices as well as for chemical reaction engineering purposes (conversion, photocatalysis, adsorption) to facilitate removal of pollutants. Organic contaminants, volatile organic compounds, and heavy metals pose long-term threats to natural ecosystems and human health. Particularly in the last decade, metal sulfide nanomaterials have piqued researchers’ interest due to their outstanding physicochemical characteristics that make them amenable to modulation, as well as their qualitative and quantitative structure–activity relationship.
Waste-derived Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Applications, and Sustainability embarks on an illuminating exploration at the intersection of waste management and nanotechnology. Delving deep into the realm of nanoparticle synthesis, this comprehensive volume meticulously examines various waste sources, ranging from industrial residues to electronic waste, uncovering their potential for sustainable innovation. Through detailed discussions on synthesis methodologies and characterization techniques, each chapter offers insights into the intricate processes involved in transforming waste materials into functional nanoparticles.Beyond synthesis, the book ventures into the diverse applications of waste-derived nanoparticles, offering transformative solutions to pressing environmental challenges. From revolutionizing wastewater treatment to combating air pollution and advancing energy technologies, these applications hold promise for a greener future. With a forward-looking perspective, this book envisions a shift toward a circular economy, where waste materials are not only repurposed but also contribute to a more sustainable and environmentally conscious world. This book serves as a beacon, guiding us toward a future where waste becomes a valuable resource in our quest for a cleaner and healthier planet.
For decades an increasingly rapid urbanization pace, modern industrial development, and constantly intensive agricultural practices have caused controlled or uncontrolled release of hazardous contaminants that seriously threaten our environment. All natural spheres (atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and anthroposphere) seem to have been exposed to harmful practices and emerging research in nanomaterials is now trying to combat their adverse impact on physical ecosystems and organisms, as well as human health. In this context, pollution remediation at the nanoscale has come to the forefront for its potential to unlock sustainable, highly efficient, and cost-effective technologies, capable to restore in situ or ex situ land, water, and air resources. Nanotechnology to Monitor, Remedy, and Prevent Pollution covers design, fabrication, and extensive applications of engineered nanostructured materials in various shapes and morphologies (such as nanoparticles, wires, tubes, fibres) that, because of their size, surface-to-volume ratio, and high reactivity, function as catalysts and adsorbents of organic pollutants (aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons), gases, chemicals (arsenic, manganese, iron, nitrate, heavy metals), antibiotics, and biological entities (bacteria, viruses, parasites). Their integration with biotechnological processes for monitoring and prevention of pollution is also explored alongside the invisible dangers caused by noise. This is a valuable book for academics, researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students working on environmental engineering for sustainability, environmental sciences, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. 
Negative Emissions Technologies for Climate Change Mitigation provides a comprehensive introduction to the full range of technologies that are being researched, developed and deployed in order to transition from our current energy system, dominated by fossil fuels, to a negative-carbon emissions system. After an introduction to the challenge of climate change, the technical fundamentals of natural and engineered carbon dioxide removal and storage processes and technologies are described. Each NET is then discussed in detail, including the key elements of the technology, enablers and constraints, governance issues, and global potential and cost estimates.This book offers a complete overview of the field, thus enabling the community to gain a full appreciation of NETs without the need to seek out and refer to a multitude of sources.
Environmental pollution as a consequence of diverse human activities has become a global concern. Urbanization, mining, industrial revolution, burning of fossil fuels/firewood and poor agricultural practices, in addition to improper dumping of waste products, are largely responsible for the undesirable change in the environment composition. Environmental pollution is mainly classified as air pollution, water pollution, land pollution, noise pollution, thermal pollution, light pollution, and plastic pollution. Nowadays, it has been realized that with the increasing environmental pollution, impurities may accumulate in plants, which are required for basic human uses such as for food, clothing, medicine, and so on. Environmental pollution has tremendous impacts on phenological events, structural patterns, physiological phenomena, biochemical status, and the cellular and molecular features of plants. Exposure to environmental pollution induces acute or chronic injury depending on the pollutant concentration, exposure duration, season and plant species. Moreover, the global rise of greenhouse gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane, chlorofluorocarbons and ozone in the atmosphere is among the major threats to the biodiversity. They have also shown visible impacts on life cycles and distribution of various plant species. Anthropogenic activities, including the fossil-fuel combustion in particular, are responsible for steady increases in the atmospheric greenhouse gases concentrations. This phenomenon accelerates the global heating. Studies have suggested that the changes in carbon dioxide concentrations, rainfall and temperature have greatly influenced the plant physiological and metabolic activities including the formation of biologically active ingredients. Taken together, plants interact with pollutants, and cause adverse ecological and economic outcomes. Therefore, plant response to pollutants requires more investigation in terms of damage detection, adaptation, tolerance, and the physiological and molecular responses. The complex interplay among other emerging pollutants, namely, radioisotopes, cell-phone radiation, nanoparticles, nanocomposites, heavy metals etc. and their impact on plant adaptation strategies, and possibility to recover, mitigation, phytoremediation, etc., also needs to be explored. Further, it is necessary to elucidate better the process of the pollutant’s uptake by plant and accumulation in the food chain, and the plant resistance capability against the various kinds of environmental pollutants. In this context, the identification of tolerance mechanisms in plants against pollutants can help in developing eco-friendly technologies, which requires molecular approaches to increase plant tolerance to pollutants, such as plant transformation and genetic modifications. Pollutant-induced overproduction of reactive oxygen species that cause DNA damage and apoptosis-related alterations, has also been examined. They also trigger changes at the levels of transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome, which has been discussed in this book.
New Paradigms in Environmental Biomonitoring Using Plants highlights and explores the importance of biomonitoring methodologies and the latest updates in the field. The book presents a holistic approach toward the different aspects of biomonitoring, focusing mainly upon the inclusion of newly emerging concepts of environmental genomics, metabarcoding, and cheminformatics and biomarkers, among other technologies; helping to explore and establish a new outlook for biomonitoring frameworks. This book compiles all aspects of biomonitoring including traditional and modern techniques, using a multidimensional approach without focusing on any specific pollutant. Most biomonitoring programs implemented until now have focused more on traditional methods. This book covers new approaches to biomonitoring that could improve on the currently limited capabilities of existing schemes. The book highlights the possible scope for enriching existing datasets and characterizing biodiversity in situ in a far more complete way than has been possible previously. New Paradigms in Environmental Biomonitoring Using Plants will be important for researchers, academics, postgraduates and undergraduate students in environmental, plant, crop and soil sciences, to provide up-to-date and emerging technologies in biomonitoring for environmental assessment, leading to a new vision of biomonitoring. It will also be helpful for risk assessment professionals and stakeholders involved in planning the future biomonitoring programs.
Water Conservation in the Era of Global Climate Change reviews key issues surrounding climate change and water resources. The book brings together experts from a variety of fields and perspectives, providing a comprehensive view on how climate change impacts water resources, how water pollution impacts climate change, and how to assess potential hazards and success stories on managing and addressing current issues in the field. Topics also include assessing policy impacts, innovative water reuse strategies, and information on impacts on fisheries and agriculture including food scarcity. This book is an excellent tool for researchers and professionals in Climate Change, Climate Services and Water Resources, and those trying to combat the impacts and issues related to Global and Planetary Change.
While existing approaches to monitoring environmental contaminants tend to focus on a small suite of contaminant types and often involve monitoring at fixed points and at fixed times, Monitoring Environmental Contaminants focuses on a wide range of new technologies and approaches available for monitoring chemical and biological contaminants in air, water, soil and food. These new methods allow the ability to monitor a wider range of contaminants at much greater and temporal resolutions. Adoption of these methods could result in a change in our understanding of how humans and ecosystems are exposed to contaminants in different environmental media. This volume in the Environmental Contaminants Series provides an overview of a wide range of monitoring approaches ranging from citizen science networks to the use of robotics and sensor networks. Monitoring Environmental Contaminants describes challenges in the adoption of some of these new approaches and methods for dealing with these challenges such as the use of mining techniques for large data. The case studies within will provide a thorough illustration for researchers, academics, and scientists involved in ecology and environmental sciences.
Bioassays: Advanced Methods and Applications provides a thorough understanding of the applications of bioassays in monitoring toxicity in aquatic ecosystems. It reviews the newest tests and applications in discovering compounds and toxins in the environment, covering all suitable organisms, from bacteria, to microorganisms, to higher plants, including invertebrates and vertebrates. By learning about newer tests, water pollution control testing can be less time and labor consuming, and less expensive. This book will be helpful for anyone working in aquatic environments or those who need an introduction to ecotoxicology or bioassays, from investigators, to technicians and students.
Freshwater Biological Monitoring contains the proceedings of a Specialized Conference held in Cardiff, Wales, on September 12-14, 1984. Contributors explore advances in freshwater biological monitoring, paying particular attention to the interpretation of traditional community surveillance studies by means of the modern computer and multivariate statistical techniques and how such field community responses are related to laboratory studies of pollutants. The design, validation, and use of novel monitoring systems employing plants, invertebrates, and fish are considered, along with developments in the in vitro assessment of mutagenicity of chemicals present in water. This book is comprised of 16 chapters and begins with a review of issues surrounding the tests used in biological monitoring and the ways in which the information will be used. The discussion then turns to the usefulness of the colonization sampler in collecting macroinvertebrates indicative of river water quality in lowland rivers; biological assessment of water quality and conservation evaluation in Welsh rivers; and water chemistry, benthos, and drift in a fast-flowing river. The following chapters focus on eutrophication in rivers; toxicity testing with freshwater macroinvertebrates; and compliance biomonitoring. This monograph will be of value to policymakers and environmentalists concerned with water pollution control.