In ex-situ washing, HCl, EDTA and H2O2 solutions can effectively extract heavy metals in river sediment. Nevertheless they often target different sediment components, possibly transforming metal species into more bioavailable and hence toxic ones. This study, in batch settings, investigated the influences of different types of washing agents (i.e. HCl, EDTA and H2O2) on metal (i.e. Cu and Zn) r...

The use of diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) for predicting metal bioavailability was investigated by exposing the bivalve Tellina deltoidalis to an identical series of metal-contaminated sediments deployed simultaneously in the field and laboratory. To understand the differences in metal exposure occurring between laboratory- and field-based bioassays, we investigated changes in metal fl...

The studies were carried out on heavy metal bioavailability and leachability during water hyacinth composting mixed with cattle manure, sawdust and natural zeolite. The water hyacinth, cattle manure and sawdust were taken in the 6:3:1 ratio with 5, 10 and 15% natural zeolite and composted for 30 days. The concentrations of nutrients and total heavy metals were increased during the process. Due ...

All the regulations that define a maximum concentration of metals in the receiving soil are based on total soil metal concentration. However, the potential toxicity of a heavy metal in the soil depends on its speciation and availability. We studied the effects of heavy metal speciation and availability on soil microorganism activities along a Cu/Zn contamination gradient. Microbial biomass and ...

Biological treatment of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) in soil rarely results in complete mineralization of the parent compound. More often, the largest proportion of the TNT carbon is incorporated into the soil organic matrix. Therefore, we evaluated the stability of nonextractable residues from various bioremediation processes of 14C-TNT in soils. The extractable amounts of the residual radioact...