BACKGROUND Riverine particles undergo a rapid transformation when they reach estuaries. The rapid succession of hydrodynamic and biogeochemical regimes forces the particles to flocculate, settle and enter the sediment pool. The rates and magnitudes of flocculation depend on the nature of the particles which are primarily affected by the types and quantities of organic matter (OM). Meanwhile, th...

Vermitechnology is an effective composting method, which transforms biomass into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer. Mature vermicompost is a renewable organic product containing humic substances with high biological activity. The aim of this study was to assess the chemical characteristics and the bioactivity of humic acids isolated from different vermicomposts produced with either cattle manure...

Available experimental data describing Al(III) and Fe(III) binding by fulvic and humic acids can be explained approximately by Humic Ion Binding Model VI. The model is based on conventional equilibrium reactions, involving protons, metal aquo ions and their first hydrolysis products, and binding sites ranging from abundant ones of low affinity, to rare ones of high affinity, common to all metal...

The mobility of phenanthrene (PHE) in soils depends on its sorption and is influenced by either the existing soil humus or exogenous humic substances. Exogenous humic acids (HAs) were added to soil to enhance the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) by 2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 g kg(-1). PHE desorption of the treated soils was determined at two pH levels (3.0 and 6.0) and temperatures (15 and 25 degree...

Humic substances (HS) are the most abundant natural organic compounds in aquatic and terrestrial environments. However, the bacterial degradation of HS in the estuarine salinity gradient and in coastal regions as a sink for HS, entering the open sea, is not well understood. Therefore, we studied the bacterial degradation of humic-rich dissolved organic carbon (DOC) at increasing salinities betw...

Radiocarbon dating was performed for the extracted organic fractions (cellulose-rich and humic acid fractions of plant fragment; fulvic acid, humic acid and humin fractions of humus substance) and shell from core sediments of the Erhai Lake, SW China. The 14C dating results reveal that there are considerable differences, but there apparently is a humic acid ≤ humin < fulvic acid fraction sequen...

The goal of these studies was to determine how sorption by humic acids affected the bioavailability of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to PAH-degrading microbes. Micellar solutions of humic acid were used as sorbents, and phenanthrene was used as a model PAH. Enrichments from PAH-contaminated soils established with nonsorbed phenanthrene yielded a total of 25 different isolates represe...