Isolation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus cereus</Emphasis> from botanical soil and subsequent biodegradation of waste engine oil     

S. Bhurgri  F. N. Talpur  S. M. Nizamani  H. I. Afridi  M. A. Surhio  Muhammad Raza Shah  C. W. Bong 《International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology》2018,15(7):1453-1466

Waste engine oil causes a vital environmental pollution when it spill during change and transportation and products of waste engine oil causes lethal effects to the living systems. Thus, abiotic and biotic approaches are being extensively used for removal of waste engine oil pollution. Therefore in present study, waste engine oil degradation was accomplished by a new bacterial culture, isolated from the soil by an enrichment technique. Morphological, biochemical and gene sequence analysis revealed that isolate was Bacillus cereus. Subsequently, biodegradation potential of B. cereus for waste engine oil was studied. Experimental variables, such as pH, substrate concentration, inoculum size, temperature and time on the biodegradation, were checked in mineral salt medium. The biodegradation efficiency of B. cereus was determined by gravimetry, UV–visible spectrophotometry and gas chromatography. In addition, waste engine oil was also characterized by GC–MS and FTIR for its major constituents, which showed total 38 components in waste engine oil, including hopanes, benzopyrene, long-chain aliphatic hydrocarbons, dibenzothiophenes, biphenyl and their derivatives. Results of successive biodegradation indicated that B. cereus was capable to degrade 1% of waste engine oil with 98.6% degradation potential at pH 7 within 20 days. Hence, B. cereus presents an innovative tool for removing the engine oil from the contaminated area.  相似文献   

Geospatial assessment of soil erosion intensity and sediment yield: a case study of Potohar Region,Pakistan   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Saleem Ullah  Amjad Ali  Muhammad Iqbal  Muhammad Javid  Muhammad Imran 《Environmental Earth Sciences》2018,77(19):705

Estimation of spatial extent of soil erosion, one of the most serious forms of land degradation, is critical because soil erosion has serious implications on soil fertility, water ecosystem, crop productivity and landscape beauty. The primary objective of the current study was to assess and map the soil erosion intensity and sedimentation yield of Potohar region of Pakistan. Potohar is the rainfed region with truncated and complex topography lying at the top of the Indus Basin, the world’s largest irrigation networks of canals and barrages. Spatially explicit Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Model integrated with Remote Sensing-GIS techniques was used for detecting/mapping of erosion prone areas and quantification of soil losses. The results show that the Potohar region is highly susceptible to soil erosion with an average annual soil loss of 19 tons ha^?1 year^?1 of which the maximum erosion (70–208 tons ha^?1 year^?1) was near the river channels and hilly areas. The sediment yield due to the erosion is as high as 148 tons ha^?1 year^?1 with an average of 4.3 tons ha^?1 year^?1. It was found that 2.06% of the total area falls under severe soil erosion, 13.34% under high erosion, 15.35% under moderate soil erosion while 69.25% of the area lies in the low (tolerable) soil erosion. Chakwal and Jhelum districts of the region are seriously affected by erosion owing to their topography and soil properties. The information generated in this study is a step forward towards proper planning and implementation of strategies to control the erosion and for protection of natural resources. It is, hence, necessary that suitable water harvesting structures be made to control water to prevent soil erosion and provision of water in the lean season in this region. Tree plantation and other erosion control practices such as strip cropping can also minimize soil erosion in this region.  相似文献   

Effect of heat treatment on dynamic properties of selected rock types taken from the Salt Range in Pakistan     

M. Farooq Ahmed  Umer Waqas  Muhammad Arshad  J. David Rogers 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2018,11(22):728

Temperature is one of the variables that influence the elasto-plastic behavior and integrity of rock outcrops. Fluctuations in temperature can trigger alteration of some of the mineral properties and impact the brittle-plastic transition. Initiation and propagation of thermally induced tension cracks tend to weaken most rock types. The principal goal of this study was to anticipate impacts of thermal stress-strain cycles on the dynamic response of representative rock units exposed in the Khewra Gorge of the Salt Range Punjab of Pakistan. Ten types of sedimentary rock units were sampled, including marl, dolomite, three types of limestone, and five different sandstones exhibiting varying characteristics in outcrop. Boulder specimens were collected from the field and transported to the laboratory to prepare 50 drill cores that could be subjected to thermal cycling between 50 and 200 °C in increments of 50 °C. Room temperature core samples were tested using an Erudite resonance frequency meter to measure their Q-factors and the resonance frequency (F_r) at an applied loading frequency of 7 KHz with 0.01 V output voltage. Results suggest that thermal cycling tends to reduce the dynamic Young’s modulus (E_d) and Q-factor. Other parameters, such as damping ratio (ξ), specific damping capacity (Ψ), and loss factor (?) appeared to increase with increasing temperature cycles, likely as a result of developing thermally induced tensile fractures. The resultant values of the null hypothesis (t-critical and t-stats) suggests that the null hypothesis can be discarded because there was no observable difference between the measured and expected values for the cores tested. The observations and data emanating from this study might be useful in designing low-level radioactive waste landfills, nuclear waste repositories, and deep underground excavations where the increased temperature could alter the mechanical behavior of the parent rock mass.  相似文献   

Synthesis of biochar from sugarcane filter-cake and its impacts on physiological performance of lettuce (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Lettuce sativa</Emphasis>) grown on cadmium contaminated soil     

Anum Sehar  Rukhsanda Aziz  Muhammad Tariq Rafiq  Muhammad Mazhar Hussain  Muhammad Rizwan  Adiba Khan Sehrish  Muhammad Khalid Rafiq  Jalal ud Din  Qaiser Hussain  Mohammad I. Al-Wabel  Shafaqat Ali 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2018,11(20):634

Soil contamination with cadmium has become major concern all over the world because of its adverse impacts on ecosystem health and agricultural land. Soil amendment with biochar may have varied effects on physical and chemical properties of soil. The objective of the study was to explore the impact of sugarcane filter-cake biochar on physiological performance and growth of lettuce in an aged soil. Four different doses (0, 1.5%, 3%, and 5%) of biochar were used in the soil and conditioned for 1 month. After this, lettuce seedlings were grown in the soil. The results showed that the biochar treatment improved the fresh and dry biomass of leaves and roots as well as plant height while diminished the bioavailability of cadmium from the soil. As compared to control, biochar significantly enhanced the chlorophyll content in lettuce leaves. Due to the biochar amendment, the oxidative stress decreased in lettuce shoots over the control. As compared to control, concentration of cadmium in lettuce significantly decreased after the application of biochar. It was concluded that biochar could mitigate the toxicity of cadmium in lettuce by altering the biochemical and physiological processes in cadmium contaminated soil.  相似文献   

Assessing the impacts of rainfall intensity and urbanization on storm runoff in an arid catchment     

Muhammad A. Al-Zahrani 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2018,11(9):208

In the past few decades, rapid urbanization has occurred in many regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia due to increasing population and urban development. Additionally, the effects of global warming on rainfall characteristics have been observed. This rapid change in urbanization and climate change has cause significant changes in the nature of land surfaces and rainfall patterns, which affect the runoff process and the amount of surface runoff during floods. This study investigated the effect of urbanization and rainfall intensity for Hafr Al-Batin watershed located in Saudi Arabia. For this purpose, a hydrologic model, HEC-HMS, was adopted to simulate the flow of different rainfall intesities and urbanization levels. Simulated results showed that for a 100-year storm, a 24-h duration, and an urbanization level of 80%, the peak flow was 213% higher than the estimated current peak and the runoff volume was 112% higher than the current runoff volume. These results show a strong linear correlation between the level of urbanization and both peak discharge and runoff volume. Furthermore, the results indicate that for short return periods, the peak flow is more sensitive to the level of urbanization compared to long periods.  相似文献   

Structure and stratigraphy of Rumbli and Panjar areas of Kashmir and Pakistan with the aid of GIS     

Omer Iqbal  Mirza Shahid Baig  Shahab Pervez  Muhammad Iqbal Siddiqi 《Journal of the Geological Society of India》2018,91(1):57-66

The project area lies in the southern part of the Hazara Kashmir syntaxis. The Hazara Kashmir syntaxis is an antiformal structure. The project area includes Rumbli, Namb, Chatrora, Chachan, Panjar, Barathian and Utrinna areas of Rawalpindi and Sudhnoti districts. The southeastern limb of the Hazara Kashmir syntaxis is imbricated along Punjal thrust, Main Boundary thrust and Riasi fault. The Jhelum fault truncates the western limb of Hazara Kashmir syntaxis. The core of syntaxis comprises of Himalayan molasse deposits. These molasse deposits represent the part of cover sequence of Indian plate. These Himalayan molasse deposits include the Early to Middle Miocene Kamlial Formation, Middle to Late Miocene Chinji Formation, Late Miocene Nagri Formation and Late Miocene Dhok Pathan Formation. The area is highly deformed resulting folds and faults. The major folds in the project area are the Panjar anticline, Barathian syncline, Barathian anticline, Rumbli anticline, Chatrora antiformal syncline and Namb syncline. The folds are either northwest-southeast trending or southwestnortheast trending. The folds are asymmetric, open, and gentle and close in nature. The folds are southwest, northeast or southeast vergent. The Jhelum fault truncates the northeast and northwest trending structures. The folds and faults are the result of northeastsouthwest or northwest-southeast Himalayan compression.  相似文献   

Petrogenesis and tectonic association of rift-related basic Panjal dykes from the northern Indian plate,North-Western Pakistan: evidence of high-Ti basalts analogous to dykes from Tibet     

Sajid  Muhammad  Andersen  Jens  Arif  Mohammad 《Mineralogy and Petrology》2018,112(3):415-434

Mineralogy and Petrology - Rift related magmatism during Permian time in the northern margin of Indian plate is represented by basic dykes in several Himalayan terranes including north western...  相似文献   

Regional modelling of rainfall-induced runoff using hydrological model by incorporating plant cover effects: case study in Kelantan,Malaysia     

Shattri Mansor  Nader Saadatkhah  Zailani Khuzaimah  Arnis Asmat  Nor Aizam Adnan  Siti Noradzah Adam 《Natural Hazards》2018,93(2):739-764

The objective of this paper is to develop a spatial temporal runoff modelling of local rainfall patterns effect on the plant cover hilly lands in Kelantan River Basin. Rainfall interception loss based on leaf area index, loss/infiltration on the ground surface, and runoff calculation were considered as the main plant cover effects on the runoff volume. In this regard, a hydrological and geotechnical grid-based regional model (integrated model) was performed using Microsoft Excel^® and GIS framework system for deterministic modelling of rainfall-induced runoff by incorporating plant cover effects. The infiltration process of the current model was integrated with the precipitation distribution method and rainfall interception approach while the runoff analysis of integrated model was employed based on loss/infiltration water on the ground surface with consideration of water interception loss by canopy and the remaining surface water. In the following, the spatial temporal analysis of rainfall-induced runoff was performed using 10 days of hourly rainfall events at the end of December 2014 in Kelantan River Basin. The corresponding changes in pressure head and consequent rate of infiltration were calculated during rainfall events. Subsequently, flood volume is computed using local rainfall patterns, along with water interception loss and the remaining surface water in the study area. The results showed the land cover changes caused significant differences in hydrological response to surface water. The increase in runoff volume of the Kelantan River Basin is as a function of deforestation and urbanization, especially converting the forest area to agricultural land (i.e. rubber and mixed agriculture).  相似文献   

Modelling tropical cyclone risks for present and future climate change scenarios using geospatial techniques     

Muhammad Al-Amin Hoque  Stuart Phinn  Chris Roelfsema  Iraphne Childs 《International Journal of Digital Earth》2018,11(3):246-263

Tropical cyclones and their devastating impacts are of great concern to coastal communities globally. An appropriate approach integrating climate change scenarios at local scales is essential for producing detailed risk models to support cyclone mitigation measures. This study developed a simple cyclone risk-modelling approach under present and future climate change scenarios using geospatial techniques at local scales, and tested using a case study in Sarankhola Upazila from coastal Bangladesh. Linear storm-surge models were developed up to 100-year return periods. A local sea level rise scenario of 0.34?m for the year 2050 was integrated with surge models to assess the climate change impact. The resultant storm-surge models were used in the risk-modelling procedures. The developed risk models successfully identified the spatial extent and levels of risk that match with actual extent and levels within an acceptable limit of deviation. The result showed that cyclone risk areas increased with the increase of return period. The study also revealed that climate change scenario intensified the cyclone risk area by 5–10% in every return period. The findings indicate this approach has the potential to model cyclone risk in other similar coastal environments for developing mitigation plans and strategies.  相似文献   

Identifying the determinants of access to agricultural credit in Southern Punjab of Pakistan     

Zulfiqar  Farah  Shang  Jie  Zada  Muhammad  Alam  Qamar  Rauf  Tariq 《GeoJournal》2021,86(6):2767-2776

Based on the survey data of 250 farmers from the Multan district of Southern region of Punjab, Pakistan this study aims to empirically examine the determinants of access to agricultural credit. This study used the probit model to analyze the data. The results revealed that formal education, farm size, level of farm mechanization, farm revenue and landholding size positively and significantly influenced access to agricultural credit while the age of the farmer’s, distance, and off- farm income negatively and insignificantly influenced farmer’s accessibility to agricultural credit. The findings of the current study offer a policy guideline to streamline national policy on agricultural finance. This study also recommends that ZaraiTaraqiati Bank (ZTBL) and other Commercial Banks should improve their agricultural credit schemes to fulfil the diversified needs of small farm holders.

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