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Siderophores are low molecular weight secondary metabolites produced by microorganisms under low iron stress as a specific iron chelator. In the present study, a rhizospheric bacterium was isolated from the rhizosphere of sesame plants from Salem district, Tamil Nadu, India and later identified as Bacillus subtilis LSBS2. It exhibited multiple plant-growth-promoting (PGP) traits such as hydrogen cyanide (HCN), ammonia, and indole acetic acid (IAA), and solubilized phosphate. The chrome azurol sulphonate (CAS) agar plate assay was used to screen the siderophore production of LSBS2 and quantitatively the isolate produced 296 mg/L of siderophores in succinic acid medium. Further characterization of the siderophore revealed that the isolate produced catecholate siderophore bacillibactin. A pot culture experiment was used to explore the effect of LSBS2 and its siderophore in promoting iron absorption and plant growth of Sesamum indicum L. Data from the present study revealed that the multifarious Bacillus sp. LSBS2 could be exploited as a potential bioinoculant for growth and yield improvement in S. indicum.

Abstract In this study, crude cellulose derived from cornstalk, after bleaching, was used as raw material for the synthesis of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) by reacting with the cellulose with NaOH and chloroacetic acid at 75 °C for 1.5 h. Effects of alkali dosage, concentration of chloroacetic acid on the physical and chemical properties of the CMC products were investigated. It was revealed that the reactants alkali reagent/chloroacetic acid/cellulose at the molar ratio of 4.6:2.8:1and 4:2.5:1, or at the molar ratio of NaOH/ClCH 2 COOH ≈1.6–1.64, resulted in CMC products of relatively high water solubility. The viscosity-average molecular weight M v of these two CMC products obtained at molar ratios of 4.0:2.5:1 and 4.6:2.8:1 is in the range of 1.94 × 10 4 –2.48 × 10 4 g mol −1 , and the average DS of the two products are 0.57 and 0.85, respectively. As the solute concentration is above 2 wt%, the viscosity of the CMC-water solution exhibits nonlinear (exponential) increasing with increasing the solute concentration (typical of non-Newton fluids).

Microalgae offer a great potential to contribute significantly as renewable fuels and documented as a promising platform for algae-based bio refineries. They provide solutions to mitigate the environmental concerns posed by conventional fuel sources; however, the production of microalgal biofuels in large scale production system encounters few technical challenges. High quantity of nutrients requirements and water cost constrain the scaling up microalgal biomass to large scale commercial production. Crop protection against biomass losses due to grazers or pathogens is another stumbling block in microalgal field cultivation. With our existing technologies, unless coupled with high-value or mid-value products, algal biofuel cannot reach the economic target. Many microalgal industries that started targeting biofuel in the last decade had now adopted parallel business plans focusing on algae by-products application as cosmetic supplements, nutraceuticals, oils, natural color, and animal feed. This review provides the current status and proposes a framework for key supply demand, challenges for cost-effective and sustainable use of water and nutrient. Emphasis is placed on the future industrial market status of value added by products of microalgal biomass. The cost factor for biorefinery process development needs to be addressed before its potential to be exploited for various value-added products with algal biofuel.

Rapid urbanization combined with high economic growth, industrialization, and changes in socio-economic conditions increase the quantity of municipal solid waste. Cities located in South-Asia are facing serious issues due to waste, with countries like India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan top of the list of bad waste management. The increasing generation of solid waste and also the improper management of waste in Bangladesh leads to environmental degradation. Current waste management practice in Bangladesh is so weak that day by day it is harming the climate and creating a lot of unwanted situations. This research consists of an examination of the current administrative measures and presents another proposition for the executive cycle to decrease ecological contamination. The research study aims to decrease the amount of waste being dumped into municipal sanitary landfill sites & converting the waste into energy which is both financially and environmentally suitable by involving unemployed people in the management system. The results of this study will give an idea of how waste can be utilized as a resource and how this resource can be a capital good as well as how the local level problems can be solved by taking some strategies and making our environment suitable for future generations.

The influence of various solvents (H2O, CH3OH, and C2H5OH) on product distribution and nature of products during hydrothermal liquefaction of sargassum tenerrimum algae has been examined. Hydrothermal liquefaction was performed using H2O (260, 280 and 300°C) and organic solvents CH3OH and C2H5OH (280°C) for 15min. The use of organic solvents significantly increased the yield of bio-oil. In the case of liquefaction with CH3OH and C2H5OH, the bio-oil yield was 22.8 and 23.8wt.% respectively whereas the bio-oil yield was 16.33wt.% with H2O. GC-MS analysis of the liquid products indicated the presence of various organic compounds including aromatics, nitrogenated and oxygenated compounds and higher selectivity amount of ester compounds were observed in the presence of alcoholic solvents. NMR and FT-IR showed that present of solvents have an effect on the decomposition of sargassum tenerrimum algae.

Anode with good electrocatalytic capabilities is more specifically required to reduce the ohimic losses during microbial fuel cell (MFC) operation. Highly conductive polymers viz., Polyaniline (PANi) and Polyaniline/Carbon nanotube (PANi/CNT) composite were prepared by in situ oxidative chemical polymerization method. Anodes were fabricated independently by coating PANi and CNT/PANi composites on the surface of SSM. The fabricated electrodes were evaluated as anode against stainless steel mess (SSM) as cathode during MFC operation. Maximum bioelectricity generation was observed in SSM-PANi/CNT-anode with power density of 48 mW/m2 and COD removal efficiency of 80% compared with SSM-PANi-anode (38 mW/m2; 65%) and SSM-anode (28 mW/m2; 58%). Bioelectrochemical characterization of the electrode materials using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy showed high electrocatalytic activity of PANi/CNT composite electrode. The study concluded the efficiency of PANi/CNT composite electrodes as bioanode in operation of MFCs towards achieving increased bioelectricity production along with wastewater treatment.

Global transition towards renewable energy production has increased the demand for new and more flexible hydropower operations. Before management and stakeholders can make informed choices on potential mitigations, it is essential to understand how the hydropower reservoir ecosystems respond to water level regulation (WLR) impacts that are likely modified by the reservoirs' abiotic and biotic characteristics. Yet, most reservoir studies have been case-specific, which hampers large-scale planning, evaluation and mitigation actions across various reservoir ecosystems. Here, we investigated how the effect of the magnitude, frequency and duration of WLR on fish populations varies along environmental gradients. We used biomass, density, size, condition and maturation of brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) in Norwegian hydropower reservoirs as a measure of ecosystem response, and tested for interacting effects of WLR and lake morphometry, climatic conditions and fish community structure. Our results showed that environmental drivers modified the responses of brown trout populations to different WLR patterns. Specifically, brown trout biomass and density increased with WLR magnitude particularly in large and complex-shaped reservoirs, but the positive relationships were only evident in reservoirs with no other fish species. Moreover, increasing WLR frequency was associated with increased brown trout density but decreased condition of individuals within the populations. WLR duration had no significant impacts on brown trout, and the mean weight and maturation length of brown trout showed no significant response to any WLR metrics. Our study demonstrates that local environmental characteristics and the biotic community strongly modify the hydropower-induced WLR impacts on reservoir fishes and ecosystems, and that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to mitigate environmental impacts. This knowledge is vital for sustainable planning, management and mitigation of hydropower operations that need to meet the increasing worldwide demand for both renewable energy and ecosystem services delivered by freshwaters. Data of environmental characteristics and brown trout populations in 102 Norwegian hydropower reservoirsThe data contains field-collected data of brown trout populations in 102 Norwegian reservoirs with variable environmental characteristics. The brown trout data (i.e. response variables) include estimates of: "Biomass" (grams of fish per 100m2 net per night); "Density" (number of fish per 100m2 net per night); "Mean weight" (mean wet mass in grams); "Mean condition" (mean Fulton's condition factor); and "Mean maturity length" (mean total length of mature females in millimeters). All abbreviations for different variables (columns) are explained in the paper. Many reservoirs ("Lake") have various names, some including Norwegian letters (æ, ø & å). Hence, we recommend to use coordinate data (EPSG:4326; "decimalLongitude" and "decimalLatitude") and Norwegian national lake ID numbers ("Lake_nr"; managed by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate; www.nve.no) to locate the reservoirs. The variables "Year", "Month" and "Day" refer to times when survey fishing was conducted. Lake morphometry data ("A"=surface area, "SD"=shoreline development) is obtained from NVE database. The lake climatic and catchment data ("T"=mean July air temperature, "NDVI"= Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, and "SL"=terrain slope) is obtained and measured as described by Finstad et al. (2014; DOI: 10.1111/ele.12201). Other abbreviations include: "FC"=presence of other fish species (1=absent, 2=present); "GS"=gillnet series (1=Nordic, 2=Jensen); and "ST"=brown trout stocking (0=no stocking, 1=stocking). The water level regulation (WLR) metrics include: ): "WLR_magnitude"= maximum regulation amplitude; "WLR_frequency"=relative proportion of weeks with a sudden rise or drop in water level; and "WLR_duration"=the relative proportion of weeks with exceptionally low water levels.Data-in_doi.org-10.1016-j.scitotenv.2017.10.268.xlsx

Project: High Resolution dynamically downscaled CMIP5 climate data over India - The datasets in this project are developed as a part of a project associated with the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India, and the National Mission for Clean Ganga, Government of India. We have dynamically downscaled a coarser resolution CMIP5 GCM (CESMv1) climate data using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for the current (2006-2015) and future (2091-2100) RCP8.5 emission scenario to produce a 10km resolution dataset over India. This dataset is expected to be of massive value to fine-scale regional modelling based climate change adaptive and mitigative studies in fields of water resources, energy, agriculture, and forestry over India. This project is financially supported by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India, through grant number TE-16015/02/2019/NMCG. Summary: The Bias Corrected CESMv1 data for mid-century (2041-2050) for RCP8.5 emission scenario at coarser resolution has been downscaled to 10km resolution over India using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The climate variables included are 2m Temperature (t2m), relative humidity (rh), wind speed (wspd), total precipitation (prec), mean surface shortwave flux (sw), top-of-atmosphere outgoing longwave radiation (lw), mean surface latent (lhf) and sensible (shf) heat fluxes along with the latitude, longitude, and time information. The dataset covers the Indian National Territory region at a 369 x 369 grid. The data is available at three temporal resolutions: Daily TS, Monthly TS, and Monthly Climatology. The dataset has been structured into a total of 30 files (10 variables x 3 temporal resolutions) packed in self-explanatory NetCDF format. The daily, monthly, and monthly climatology files contain 369x369x3650, 369x369x30, and 369x369x12 data points, respectively. The entire dataset is about 30 GB in size. The precipitation files in the older version contained hourly accumulated values for every day. This version contains the correct daily accumulated, monthly accumulated and monthly climatology precipitation data.