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This study highlights how Chinese economic development detrimentally impacted water quality in recent decades and how this has been improved by enormous investment in environmental remediation funded by the Chinese government. To our knowledge, this study is the first to describe the variability of surface water quality in inland waters in China, the affecting drivers behind the changes, and how the government-financed conservation actions have impacted water quality. Water quality was found to be poorest in the North and the Northeast China Plain where there is greater coverage of developed land (cities + cropland), a higher gross domestic product (GDP), and higher population density. There are significant positive relationships between the concentration of the annual mean chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the percentage of developed land use (cities + cropland), GDP, and population density in the individual watersheds (p < 0.001). During the past decade, following Chinese government-financed investments in environmental restoration and reforestation, the water quality of Chinese inland waters has improved markedly, which is particularly evident from the significant and exponentially decreasing GDP-normalized COD and ammonium (NH4+-N) concentrations. It is evident that the increasing GDP in China over the past decade did not occur at the continued expense of its inland water ecosystems. This offers hope for the future, also for other industrializing countries, that with appropriate environmental investments a high GDP can be reached and maintained, while simultaneously preserving inland aquatic ecosystems, particularly through management of sewage discharge.

The influence of compost on the growth of bean plants irrigated with As-contaminated waters and its influence on the mobility of As in the soils and the uptake of As (as NaAs(III)O2) by plant components was studied at various compost application rates (3·10(4) and 6·10(4) kg ha(-1)) and at three As concentrations (1, 2 and 3 mg kg(-1)). The biomass and As and P concentrations of the roots, shoots and beans were determined at harvest time, as well as the chlorophyll content of the leaves and nonspecific and specifically bound As in the soil. The bean plants exposed to As showed typical phytotoxicity symptoms; no plants however died over the study. The biomass of the bean plants increased with the increasing amounts of compost added to the soil, attributed to the phytonutritive capacity of compost. Biomass decreased with increasing As concentrations, however, the reduction in the biomass was significantly lower with the addition of compost, indicating that the As phytotoxicity was alleviated by the compost. For the same As concentration, the As content of the roots, shoots and beans decreased with increasing compost added compared to the Control. This is due to partial immobilization of the As by the organic functional groups on the compost, either directly or through cation bridging. Most of the As adsorbed by the bean plants accumulated in the roots, while a scant allocation of As occurred in the beans. Hence, the addition of compost to soils could be used as an effective means to limit As accumulation in crops from As-contaminated waters.

To mitigate the climate change-induced water shortage and realize the sustainable development of agriculture, drip irrigation, a more efficient water-saving irrigation method, has been intensively implemented in most arid agricultural regions in the world. However, compared to traditional border irrigation, how drip irrigation affects the biophysical conditions in the cropland and how crops physiologically respond to changes in biophysical conditions in terms of water, heat and carbon exchange remain largely unknown. In view of the above situation, to reveal the mechanism of drip irrigation in improving spring wheat water productivity, paired field experiments based on drip irrigation and border irrigation were conducted to extensively monitor water and heat fluxes at a typical spring wheat field (Triticum aestivum L.) in Northwest China during 2017–2020. The results showed that drip irrigation improved yield by 10.3 % and crop water productivity (i.e., yield-to-evapotranspiration-ratio) by 15.6 %, but reduced LAI by 16.9 % in contrast with border irrigation. Under drip irrigation, the lateral development of spring wheat roots was promoted by higher soil temperature combined with frequent dry-wet alternation in the shallow soil layer (0–20 cm), which was the basis for efficient absorption of water and fertilizer, as well as efficient formation of photosynthate. Meanwhile, drip irrigation increased net radiation and decreased latent heat flux by inhibiting leaf growth, thereby increased sensible heat, causing a higher soil temperature (+1.10 ℃) and canopy temperature (+1.11 ℃). Further analysis proved that soil temperature was the key factor affecting yield formation. Based on the above conditions, the decrease in leaf distribution coefficient (−0.030) led to the decrease in evapotranspiration (−5.7 %) and the increase in ear distribution coefficient (+0.029). Therefore, drip irrigation emphasized the role of soil moisture in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, enhanced crop activity by increasing field temperature, especially soil temperature, and finally improved yield and water productivity via carbon reallocation. The study revealed the mechanism of drip irrigation for improving spring wheat yield, and would contribute to improving Earth system models in representing agricultural cropland ecosystems with drip irrigation and predicting the subsequent biophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks to climate change.

One-stage autotrophic nitrogen (N) removal, requiring the simultaneous activity of aerobic and anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB and AnAOB), can be obtained in spatially redox-stratified biofilms. However, previous experience with Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactors (MABRs) has revealed a difficulty in reducing the abundance and activity of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB), which drastically lowers process efficiency. Here we show how sequential aeration is an effective strategy to attain autotrophic N removal in MABRs: Two separate MABRs, which displayed limited or no N removal under continuous aeration, could remove more than 5.5 g N/m(2)/day (at loads up to 8 g N/m(2)/day) by controlled variation of sequential aeration regimes. Daily averaged ratios of the surficial loads of O(2) (oxygen) to NH(4)(+) (ammonium) (L(O(2))/L(NH(4))) were close to 1.73 at this optimum. Real-time quantitative PCR based on 16S rRNA gene confirmed that sequential aeration, even at elevated average O(2) loads, stimulated the abundance of AnAOB and AOB and prevented the increase in NOB. Nitrous oxide (N(2)O) emissions were 100-fold lower compared to other anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox)-nitritation systems. Hence, by applying periodic aeration to MABRs, one-stage autotrophic N removal biofilm reactors can be easily obtained, displaying very competitive removal rates, and negligible N(2)O emissions.

Abstract Vinasse is a residue from bioethanol production that is produced in large quantities in Brazil and Europe and is applied to fields as a source of plant nutrients (fertirrigation). A side effect of this use is greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during storage and transport in open channels to fields, and from fertirrigated soils. This study assessed GHG emissions in experiments simulating this vinasse management system, and the potential for reducing emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from vinasse via anaerobic digestion (AD) in biogas plants. During 21 days’ storage of untreated vinasse, 29% of dry matter (DM) and 40% of volatile solids (VS) were lost, which resulted in cumulative CH4 emissions of up to 43.8 kg CO2eq kg−1 C-vinasse. In contrast, there were no CH4 emissions from AD-treated vinasse (digestate) during storage. GHG emission was related to the biochemical characteristics of the untreated and digested vinasse. The accumulation of oxidised nitrogen (N) compounds was up to four-fold higher in soil amended with untreated vinasse than from digestate-amended soil. The N2O emissions from soil amended with untreated vinasse were also higher than from soil amended with digestate, ranging from 0.173 to 0.193 kg CO2eq m−2 in the former and from 0.045 to 0.100 kg CO2eq m−2 in the latter. Extrapolation of the results to a Brazilian case indicated that AD treatment prior to storage/transport and field application could reduce GHG emissions from the vinasse management chain by at least 48%, with further reductions from the use of biogas in power production.

Using agricultural biomasses as solid carbon substrates in constructed wetlands (CWs) could be an effective way to achieve sustainable nitrogen removal for carbon-limited wastewater treatments. This study investigated the response of bacteria community in CWs to the addition of agricultural biomasses (wheat straw, walnut shell and apricot pit). Results indicated that the addition of different agricultural biomasses had distinct influence on bacterial communities in CWs. Both wheat straw and walnut shell increased the diversity of microbial communities and optimized the structure of microorganisms. The effect of apricot pit on the richness and evenness of microbial communities was not significant, but the composition of microorganisms was significantly affected at the phylum level, especially the relative abundance of phylum Saccharibacteria. Moreover, the addition of agricultural biomasses in CWs acclimatized more functional bacteria including nitrifier and denitrifier, which were proved to be positively correlated with the high-rate denitrification performance. The obtained results would be beneficial to understand the underlying microbial mechanism of nitrogen removal in CWs with agricultural biomass and provide some guidance on the practical application of CWs.

Abstract The paper investigated the mesophilic (∼35 °C) and thermophilic (∼50 °C) co-digestion of cattle manure and C5 molasses for a variable organic loading rate (OLR). The small scale continuous reactor experiment revealed that thermophilic treatment yielded a maximum 313 ± 16 L/kg VS methane for the feeding ranged between 50% and 70% C5 (v/v). Mesophilic co-digestion, on the other hand, produced maximum 232 ± 32 L/kg VS methane when feeding was ranged between 31% and 47% C5 (v/v). The feeding strategy of this study was sophistically adjusted owing to the unstable volatile fatty acids (VFA) pattern, developed at different stages of the experiment. Attainable molasses feeding for both the co-digesters was maximum 70% (v/v) above which the total VFA caused serious instability to the reactor performance in terms of methane formation. This phenomenon is suspected to lead to inhibition and hence caused the experiment to halt at day 69.

Abstract Organic farming is considered as a promising solution for reducing the environmental burden related to agricultural practices. China is one of the top-five countries with the largest organic area in the world and produces a major part of the world's organic rice. Rice cultivation causes a considerable environmental impact and changing from conventional to organic rice cultivation might therefore have a potentially great impact. Meanwhile, it takes time for the organic farming systems to reach a new steady state after conversion to organic. Thus, the environmental profile of the organic products will change over time and it is therefore important to examine whether the difference to conventional will be reduced (and disappear) or be increased over time. The aim of the present study was therefore to assess the environmental impact of organic rice production 5 (OR5), 10 (OR10) and 15 (OR15) years since conversion and compare it to conventional rice (CR) in subtropical China. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method was used to assess environmental impact of rice production systems with regard to nine environmental impact categories: Non-renewable Energy Depletion (NED), Water Depletion (WD), Land Occupation (LO), Global Warming Potential (GWP), Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication Potential (EP), Aquatic Toxicity Potential (ATP), Human Toxicity Potential (HTP) and Soil Toxicity Potential (STP). Overall, the results show that the conventional rice production system had the highest comprehensive environmental impact indices (9.65), more than 10 times that of the organic ones. Interestingly, the results showed that the environmental impact indices in the organic rice systems decreased over time from 0.80 (OR5), 0.72 (OR10) to 0.68 (OR15), and thus increased the difference to conventional over the years. The conventional rice had higher impacts from NED, WD, AP, EP, ATP, and HTP, while organic rice had higher LO, GWP and STP indices. The largest environmental index was ATP for conventional and WD for organic rice. Based on this study, organic rice systems have the potential of being recommended as sustainable agricultural practices in comparison with conventional practices. Furthermore, the present study indicated that the difference in the environmental profile of organic versus conventional agricultural products might be underestimated when analyzing organic system that has not yet reached their steady state.