Caspian Journal of Environmental Sciences
Volume:19 Issue: 4, Autumn 2021

Population growth will change the demand for food and energy resources and environmental pollution. Although early energy resources modeling has made vital efforts to model the energy system in the world, because of increasing complexity and integration of environmental, social, and economic functions, these models still need to be developed to show a system close to the real world to enhance sustainable management of natural resources. Hence, the main objective of this study is to design a system dynamics model for the food production system and energy demand in Iran in order to evaluate the effects of different population scenarios on key variables. In this regard, an integrated system dynamics simulation model was developed in Iran where managing energy resources is seriously challenging due to population growth and increasing food demand. The results of the behavioral test showed that the designed model can be used to investigate and simulate the effects of different population growth rate scenarios. Findings illustrated that by increasing population, if no further energy demand management policies were implemented, the total food demand and energy use increase by more than 1.35% and 3.31% respectively. Also, the annual air pollution change during 2014-2030 is expected to be around 4.41%. By changing the population growth rate in the form of population scenarios, the average annual energy demand in the first population scenario will be 20,277 barrels of crude oil and in the second population scenario will be 20049 barrels of crude oil. It seems that the change in the population growth rate will lead to an increase of 3.23% and 2.16% in average annual energy demand, respectively. The results showed that in the first population scenario, with a further increase in population variables, food demand and energy demand, the average change in pollution emission is 4.79%, which is at a higher level than the baseline conditions. In the second population scenario, changes in environmental pollution will be reduced to 4.31%. Therefore, given the effectiveness of population growth on the behavior of the energy system and pollution, the adoption of energy management policies should be considered by policy makers.

Intended to examine the effects of altitude on flora, life forms and geographical distribution of herbaceous species, this study was conducted in Kabirkouh forests of Darreshahr, located in Ilam Province, Iran, by selecting an area (circa 300 ha) in this forest. The study area was divided into three elevational classes and 63 systematic random plots were sampled (21 in each of the elevational classes). In order to record the herbaceous cover, the surface area of the plots was determined using the minimal area method. Then the herbaceous species and their percent coverage were recorded based on the Van der Marel criterion. A total of 109 herbaceous species belonging to 92 genera and 24 families were identified in the study area. The most frequent species were in the Asteraceae (23 species) and Poaceae (16 species) families. The results showed that in all three elevational classes, therophytes were the dominant life form of the area. The frequency of the therophytes in the first altitude class was higher than in the other classes. The second predominant life form was hemicryptophytes, whose frequency in the third class was higher than the other classes. Other life forms observed in the region were cryptophytes and chamaephytes, respectively which made up the least proportion of the area’s plant population. In addition, the results indicated that within all of the elevational classes, a high percentage of the existing plants of the study area belonged to the Irano-Turanian floristic region. Generally, the altitude had a significant effect on the distribution of the flora of the study area.

Many species of non-sporulating bacteria including Escherichia coli can enter into a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state under stress conditions. In this study, the change in thermal resistance of E. coli O157:H7 after entering into the VBNC state in salted silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, was investigated. E. coli O157:H7 was inoculated on the fish control group (TF) and on those fish with 30% NaCl (TF + 30% NaCl) at room temperature. Culturability of bacteria was determined using routine culture and colony counting on Sorbitol MacConkey agar. When bacteria were non-cultivable, the RT-PCR of 16S rRNA gene (including direct extraction and purification of RNA, DNase I treatment for removing DNA contamination, cDNA synthesis and electrophoresis of PCR products of cDNA) was used to detect VBNC E. coli O157:H7. Also, cultivable and VBNC E. coli O157:H7 were individually heat-treated at 55, 62 and 70 °C for 5 min. The samples were cooled and after 24 h, the thermal resistance of bacteria was determined through viability detection using RT-PCR of 16S rRNA gene. The culturability of bacteria was kept in fish treatment but they were non-cultivable in fish under 30% NaCl after 5 days. The positive expression of 16S rRNA in all studied treatments indicated the entering of E. coli O157:H7 into the VBNC state in fish treatment under 30% NaCl. Moreover, the RT-PCR of 16S rRNA gene showed that only VBNC forms of E. coli O157:H7 showed viability at 62 °C for 5 min which indicated the increased resistant of VBNC bacteria to the thermal inactivation. The ability of E. coli O157:H7 to enter into VBNC state in salted fish and also the increase of its thermal resistance suggest that VBNC E. coli O157: H7 can be considered as critical threat to public health and food safety.

Among the environmental factors, water temperature has a significant effect on many aspects of fish life. This study was carried out to examine effects of water temperature on body shape of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus during the early stages of life using truss network system. A total of 150 newly-born fry were reared in three temperature treatments (22, 28 and 34°C) for 40 days. At the end of experiment, the left side of the specimens was photographed. To achieve the body shape data, 13 landmark-points were digitized using tpsDig2 software. The extracted data were justified with generalized procrustes analysis, then the differences of body shape among groups were investigated using the principal component analysis (PCA), canonical variate analysis (CVA) and cluster analysis (CA). There were significant differences in body shape of the treatments. The results of CVA and CA indicated that one of the important factors in the aquatic habitats is water temperature that influences the body shape of the Nile tilapia during the first stages (larval and juvenile stages) of growth.

The cement factories in urban areas can affect the air quality of cities due to the variety of pollutants emitted from cement production processes. In the present study, the impacts of the Khazar cement factory and two transportation axes between Guilan and Qazvin provinces were investigated on the air quality of Lowshan in Guilan Province, Iran in 2019. Due to the lack of suitable meteorological data for dispersion modeling, the WRF model was used to predict the meteorological parameters. The pollutants dispersion modeling was conducted by AERMOD software and the accuracy of results was confirmed by field measurements of NO2 obtained by passive samplers. The CO and NO2 dispersion modeling results showed that the air quality of Lowshan is in an acceptable situation compared to the ambient air quality standards. So that, the maximum one-hour concentration of NO2 in most residential areas was lower than the ambient standard, and only in small parts of the areas close to line sources, the concentration value was close to the standard limits. The maximum value of annually-averaged concentration of NO2 and the maximum one-hour concentration of CO were 17 ppb and 2.5 ppm, respectively, which are much lower than the clean air standards. Further investigation showed that in the cold weather seasons, due to the less vertical displacement of air and the decrease in the boundary layer height, the concentration of pollutants in the urban environment is higher than that in the warm weather seasons. Considering the night and day time wind roses showed that despite the existence of valley-mountain structure in the city, the air quality of the city is not affected by the mountain and valley breezes and also night and day wind roses do not follow the trend of these breezes.

Heavy metals are generally found in industrial wastewaters, affecting human health and living organisms. This study was therefore aimed to use bioadsorbents rice husk and activated carbon-silica to efficiently remove the heavy metals including lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) from an aqueous wastewater. The effects of bioadsorbent content, initial concentration, contact time, and pH value on the metal removal were investigated. An increased metal initial concentration lowered the removal efficiency of the bioadsorbents, and pH 6 provided the best condition for the removal of Pb and Cd. The use of rice husk and activated carbon-silica at pH 6 resulted in a maximum metal removal of 81% and 98% for Pb, while 88% and 100% for Cd respectively. The adsorption parameters were then determined by the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms, and the experimental data were better fitted in the Freundlich adsorption isotherm model in comparison with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model.

Many industrial and chemical dyes are used in many industrial processes, a variety of different uses. Among the most important of these industries, fabric dyeing, many textiles, papermaking, printing and leather processing, and most food products, and other industries, use industrial dyes, and the waste emitted from these dyes in most industries in which most of the polluted waste resulting from these remnants is produced factories. Therefore, the best methods were adopted to treat and dispose of these dyes in order to preserve the aquatic environment .In the current study, the adsorption characteristics of two dyes, Maxillon blue (GRL) and Direct yellow (DY12), from an aqueous solution were evaluated. The effect of several factors, for example, initial concentration, pH solution, temperature, adsorbent mass, and equilibrium time, have been study. The adsorption capacity and percentage of color removed upraised by elevating contact time and surface area, also elevated by the upraised temperature solution for GRL and DY12, and also the adsorption efficiency decreased by the raised adsorbent dosage. The optimum equilibrium for contact time to be completed is found to be (60 min) 1 hour. It is essentially due to the saturation of the active site that does not let further adsorption to take place. The adsorption was proved through utilizing (FT-IR) and (F.E-SEM) analysis. In addition, TGA appears that the NTADCIP/P (AA-co-AM) composite is stable in high temperatures. GRL adsorbent surfaces best adsorption found to be at pH = 10. In fact, adsorption was found to increase through the rise in solution pH.  However DY12 maximum dye adsorption was found to be at pH = 3.  The applicability of isotherms adsorption to study the adsorption behavior has to been analyzed via isotherm models Freundlech and Langmuir were utilized to illustrate the experimental model and isotherm's constants. It was found the Freundlech model gives the best fits when compare with Langmuer isotherm for two dyes.

The study of lipid rafts allowed us to take a new look at the morphology, organization and functioning of membranes, both of animal and plant origin. However, lipid rafts and their function in the cell membranes of plants are poorly understood in comparison with the membranes of animal cells. The protective function of the plant cell is of great importance for the body as a whole because plants lead an attached mode of life. To date, it is known that lipid rafts are involved in the membrane mechanisms of cell protection in response to negative effects. In this review, we summarized the literature data showing the participation of lipid rafts of plant membranes (plasmalemma, Golgi complex membranes, chloroplasts, mitochondria, and vacuoles) in the protective function of cells.

The types and degree of anthropogenic impacts have an effect on the ecological state of the environment. There are two main sources of pollution on the territory of cities: industry and motor transport. Currently, with a significant reduction in industrial production, road transport is one of the main sources of environmental pollution. The largest amount (more than 200) of air pollutants is provided by gasoline carburetor engines: carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, unburned hydrocarbons. When 1 liter of gasoline is burned, 200 - 400 mg of lead is released, thus, one passenger car emits up to 1 kg of lead into the city atmosphere per year. Diesel engines pollute the atmosphere with soot, sulfur compounds, benzo pyrene. According to American geochemists, in cities more often than in rural areas, we observe cloudy weather, more rain and less snow. Atmospheric dust in cities is 100 times more, exhaust gases, 5-25 times more than in agricultural landscapes. All this affects the health of the population. The favorable factor is that the main streets with heavy traffic are located on the watersheds, in the upper part of the city, where conditions are better for dispersing impurities. However, on streets descending into depressions, where air stagnation and surface inversions are more likely, and where uphill vehicle emissions increase, air pollution is upraised.

Long-term (1998-2018) studies have been carried out on the small lake, Karasikha, located in the territory of the Volga-Kama State Nature Biosphere Reserve. Physicochemical characteristics of the lake water classify it as eutrophic, polluted, with a low oxygen content, but a high content of organic matter and phosphates. In parallel, some studies were carried out on its zooplankton community. Karasikha Lake is the habitat of 70 species of planktonic rotifers and crustaceans identified. Based on the number of species, rotifers predominated and their largest number belonged to Brachionidae family. On average 3-4 species were dominant, as indicators of eutrophic and polluted waters. However, with a relatively high species richness of zooplankton, the community has low quantitative indicators. The low oxygen content in the water column makes zooplankton concentrate mainly in the epilimnion layer (up to 2-3 m in depth). The lowest quantitative indicators of zooplankton are characteristic of the under-ice period, which is also associated with a lack of oxygen in the water. The community is dominated by indicators of dirty waters. The structure of zooplankton communities is typical of highly polluted lakes. Indices based on the taxonomic structure of zooplankton classify the reservoir as highly eutrophic and even hypertrophic.

Turnip rape, Brassica rapa L. var. sabsp. Campestris (L.) A.R.Clapham belongs to the large cabbage family (Brassicacea). Spring turnip rape among other oilseeds of the Brassicacea family occupies an important place and can be highly productive in the Northern regions of the European part, in the arid zones of the Lower Volga region, in the northern forest-steppe and subtaiga regions of Western and Eastern Siberia, where the longer growing season sometimes hinders rapeseed to achieve its full potential. Spring turnip rape ripens 13-15 days earlier than rapeseed; it is less heat- and drought-sensitive. However, interest in industrial cultivation of spring turnip rape appeared in the 70s of the last century after the creation of non-erucic and low-glucosinolate varieties, with the oil equivalent to olive oil in its fatty acid composition. Spring turnip rape has been bred at V.S. Pustovoyt All-Russian Research Institute of Oils Crops (VNIIMK) since 1982. The yellow-seeded varieties, Vostochnaya, Yantarnaya, and Zolotistaya, were created. The objective of this research was to find a  new promising breeding material for creating varieties of 000-type spring turnip rape from heterogeneous populations of the available VNIIMK varieties. To obtain a new source material, we used the pedigree method, followed by an assessment of the progeny of elite plants isolated from Yantarnaya and Zolotistaya. The result of our six-year efforts was four new promising samples No. 815, 844, 816, and 820, which exceed the standard variety, Zolotistaya, in seed yield by 10-14%. The oil content of seeds of the isolated samples varied from 47.8 to 48.6%, and exceeded the standard variety by 0.3–0.7% in three of them. Promising cultivars either had the same or lower weight of 1000 seeds (2.4-3.0 g), in comparison with Zolotistaya. All selected samples of turnip rape were characterized by a low glucosinolate content in seeds – 13.5–14.5 μmol g-1, and the fatty acid composition corresponded to the requirements for high-quality salad oils with erucic acid levels of 0.04–0.20% and a high content of oleic acid – 65.8–67.4%. After additional assessment, the best variety will be submitted for the State test.

Organization and development conditions of ambient air contamination control stations available at onshore and offshore oil fields differ significantly. In the former case, when organizing production control at onshore facilities considering well-established practice, no special restrictions are recorded both for the development and location of a stationary network of the control stations, and for route and flare measurements. Organization of the control system at offshore facilities is determined by special conditions and requirements which is associated with a technical solution for deployment of the control stations in the aquatic area on the one hand and outfit of independent power supply utilities, and reliability of the systems and their self-sufficiency from the climatic conditions, on the other hand. Considering this, common process specifications applied to the ambient air contamination control systems do not possess a sufficient potential for their application at offshore facilities. A brief empiric assessment of various concepts for organization of production control of ambient air contamination at oil fields offshore facilities in the North Caspian Sea aquatic area considering their optimistic application and economic feasibility of their application is provided in the analytical review. The ambient air contamination control system including implementation of Lidar complexes for distant reconnaissance is a prevailing trend in the concepts assessed.

The present study evaluates the ecological features and food spectra of non-fish water products in Mingachevir and Varvara reservoirs in Azerbaijan. It is established that ecological peculiarities and food spectrum of long-toed river crayfish depend and change not only on the place and living conditions, but also on its age. In addition to environmental features, changes in the nutritional spectrum of long-toed river crayfish at different stages of ontogenesis have also been studied.

The article investigates the experience of the ecosystem production services evaluation of grassland communities using the plant functional traits, leaf area, specific leaf area, and community weighted average specific leaf area (CWM SLA). The direct dependence of the communities’ biomass on the values of the specific leaf area was revealed. Low values of the trait characterize the least productive degraded pasture meadow communities, and the most productive overgrown forest meadows have high values. The studies were conducted on the territory of Raifa forestry Volga-Kama State Natural Biosphere Reserve (VKGPBZ). Based on the outcomes, it is concluded that meadow communities' ecosystem production services can be successfully estimated using the calculation of the community- weighted specific leaf area (CWM SLA).

Favorable environment is one of the necessary basic elements for survival of mankind, its healthy growth and development. Pure air, clean water and soil are critical to the existence of flora and fauna of the Earth. However, by the development of society, by the advent of industrial revolution and the recognition of anthropocentric model of the world, man began to exploit the land and its resources without due regard to the consequences of adopting such behavior.

In the modern conditions of RF agro-industrial complex development, the transfer of animal husbandry to an industrial basis is possible only with high-grade vegetable protein production increase. Silage of the aboveground mass of pure corn during all phases of plant growth and development does not provide the content of nutrients in the feed unit according to the zootechnical requirements. Therefore, to optimize the finished feed in terms of the carbohydrate-protein ratio, green mass of legumes should be added to its composition during the preparation of silage from corn. The selection of the legume component should be carried out taking into account the following main criteria: coincidence with corn by the growing season duration, the same attitude to soil and climatic resources and insolation conditions, high provision of the legume component with digestible protein, dry matter, starch and exchange energy during the ensiling period. It has been established that the joint ensiling of corn with yellow lupine is expedient when the corn is in waxy ripeness, and the lupine is in the phase of shiny beans with the component ratio of 55:45%. In this case, the content of digestible protein in 1 feed unit of finished silage is 100.2 g at reliable feed supply with both irreplaceable (36.0 g) and critical (7.2 g) amino acids.

In this study, municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in AL-Dhibaei, Tikrit, Iraq was monitored over a period of one year. The data of raw sewage, which enter WWTP and treated sewage were obtained and investigated. To assess the operational performance of WWTP, the necessary pollutant indicators including biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), and dissolved phosphorus (PO4), were examined. The treatment plant reliability factor (RF) was determined in order to indicate an individual pollutant in the effluent sewage according to the permissible concentrations identified by the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment. RF values for BOD, COD, and PO4 were 0.56, 0.82, and 0.4, respectively, which indicated proper performance since RF values below 1. In addition, the removal efficiency for (BOD, COD, and PO4), exceeded the minimum required reduction; 43.75, 18.25, and 60.5, respectively. In addition, the stability of mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS) to mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) ratio was determined and its variation was in the range of 0.565-1.225, indicating a proper performance. The sludge volume index (SVI) values were below 50 mg L-1 and its range (5.68 – 27.27 mg L-1), which was associated with efficient treatment interpretations at most of the time.

The modern Russian food market is constantly enriched with new types of products obtained from the crops previously unknown to the domestic consumer. One of the plants of interest in this regard is quinoa, Chenopodium quinoa Willd., a pseudo-grain culture from the Amaranthaceae Juss family of the Chenopodioideae Burnett subfamily. Grain quinoa has a high nutritional value and a unique chemical composition: it has a high protein content (up to 20%), which contains the most important amino acids. It does not contain gluten, and is rich in polyunsaturated oils, vitamins and minerals. The adaptive potential of quinoa allows it to be cultivated in a wide range of agricultural-ecological conditions. It should be noted that quinoa is resistant to abiotic stresses, which is important, taking into account global climate changes, the manifestations of which negatively affect the productivity of traditional agricultural crops.

In 2018-2020, the maternal lines of winter rapeseed, Brassica napus L. developed at the V.S. Pustovoit AllRussian Research Institute of Oil Crops: 1681, 1840-2, 1860, 39712, 39859, 39880, 40059, and 40177 were studied. The purpose of the research was a comparative estimation of the maternal lines of the winter rapeseed hybrids by calculated statistic parameters of adaptability, environmental and genetic plasticity, stability, stress resistance in the central zone of the Krasnodar region in different years. Indicators of environmental plasticity and stability were calculated by seed yield of the maternal lines of the winter rapeseed hybrids for three years due to the procedure by SA Eberhart, WA Rassell as revised by VА Zykin. To calculate a coefficient of a linear regression, the environmental indexes characterizing the variability of lines production conditions were defined. Stress resistance and genetic plasticity were determinated due to the equation by AA Rossielle & J Hamblin. Potential productivity and adaptability were identified by the procedure of LA Zhivotkov. The conditions of the 2020 were satisfactory for winter rapeseed plants growth and development. The average yield of the maternal lines was equal to 4.83 ton ha-1 . The conditions of 2018 and 2019 were not quite favorable, since the environmental index was negative (Ij= -0.14 and -1.23), and average yield was 3.33 and 2.24 ton ha-1 , respectively. The comparative estimation of the maternal lines of the winter rapeseed hybrids developed at the V.S. Pustovoit AllRussian Research Institute of Oil Crops by the parameters of the ecological plasticity and stability in the Krasnodar region showed that the line 39712 having the average seed yield per year of 3.70 ton ha-1 combines a high level of plasticity, adaptability, stability and is characterized by a high genetic plasticity. This line possesses high responsibility to the advanced cultivation conditions. The line 39880 with the average yield of 3.57 ton ha-1 also is characterized by environmental and genetic plasticity and adaptability. The lines 39859 and 40177 demonstrated the highest stability and resistance to the stress factors of environments. They are very adaptive to deterioration of the weather conditions. The selected maternal lines are very interesting for breeding of winter rapeseed hybrids of the Russian origin.

Modern varieties of white lupin can be an alternative to soy in overcoming vegetable protein deficiency: to produce or import? Unlike soybeans, lupin seeds do not contain trypsin inhibitors; they don’t need heat treatment to be used in feed. Lupin has a high attachment of beans. It is drought-resistant, adapted to environmental conditions with insufficient moisture. The formation of seedlings is a critical period in the ontogeny of lupin, preceding sprouting. At this time, parameters of seedlings such as the speed and vigor, density, distribution uniformity on the soil surface are determined. The objective is to determine the dynamic characteristics of seedlings of white and blue lupin seeds by alterations in the wet and dry weight of the seedling and its individual organs in laboratory and field experiments. In the laboratory experiments, seeds of white and blue lupins were germinated on sifted and calcined sand, moistened to 80% of the total moisture capacity at 20 ºC. On the 4th and 7 th days, the wet and dry weight per 100 seedlings, morphological alterations in the seedling bodies and their mass were determined, as well as the expenditure of seed reserve nutrients for the formation of seedlings was calculated. In field experiment, the same parameters of seedlings were determined, considering their laboratory germination (according to the number of viable seeds per 1 m row). The formation features of seedlings of white and blue lupins in laboratory and field experiments have been studied. The certain features influencing the parameters of seedlings in field during the critical "sowing-seedlings” period have been determined.