NF/RO membrane filtration processes have been recognized as an important technology to facilitate water recycling. Those processes are well-proven technologies, which can be used to remove a wide range of contaminants including trace contaminants that are of particular concern in water recycling. However, risk implications in association with brine or concentrate and membrane cleaning wastewate...

The past was a world of giants, with abundant whales in the sea and large animals roaming the land. However, that world came to an end following massive late-Quaternary megafauna extinctions on land and widespread population reductions in great whale populations over the past few centuries. These losses are likely to have had important consequences for broad-scale nutrient cycling, because rece...

Changes were assessed in urban wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent quality during short-term storage in open surface ponds. Water quality was monitored over five years at the inlets and outlets of open storage ponds located at three biological nutrient removal plants. Pond influent temperature, rainfall and sewage inflow were not found to be major factors. However, there was a trend for ...

Rain, fog drip, shallow soil water and groundwater were collected for two years (2002-2003) for stable isotopic analysis, at a tropical seasonal rain forest site in Xshuangbanna, Southwest China. The fog drip water ranged from -30 to +27 per thousand in deltaD and -6.2 to +1.9 per thousand in delta(18)O, conforms to the equation deltaD=7.64delta(18)O+14.32, and was thought to contain water that...

A prototype distillation and storage system with recycle for producing ultrapure water was monitored for bacteriological contamination during a period of 24 months. Naturally occurring Pseudomonas aeruginosa and P. cepacia were found to grow rapidly to levels of about 10(5)/ml in water taken from the storage reservoir and also in commercially prepared distilled water. The system was found to el...

There is increasing evidence that species extinctions jeopardize the functioning of ecosystems. Overfishing and other human influences are reducing the diversity and abundance of fish worldwide, but the ecosystem-level consequences of these changes have not been assessed quantitatively. Recycling of nutrients is one important ecosystem process that is directly influenced by fish. Fish species v...

Cities are a key system in anthropogenic phosphorus (P) cycling because they concentrate both P demand and waste production. Urban agriculture (UA) has been proposed as a means to improve P management by recycling cities' P-rich waste back into local food production. However, we have a limited understanding of the role UA currently plays in the P cycle of cities or its potential to recycle loca...

The use of reclaimed wastewater in agriculture can be a solution for regions with water shortages or low rainfall periods; besides fulfilling the crop's water needs, it would also promote the recycle of nutrients. However, care should be taken regarding soil salinization, especially in closed environments such as greenhouses for the cultivation of ornamental plants. The domestic effluents are r...

Water-flooded oil reservoirs have specific ecological environments due to continual water injection and oil production and water recycling. Using 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis, the microbial communities present in injected waters and produced waters from four typical water-flooded oil reservoirs with different in situ temperatures of 25 °C, 40 °C, 55 °C and 70 °C were examined. The resul...