From the last few years, the inclusion of microbial phytase in poultry diets has increased significantly, mainly in response to heightened concerns over phosphorus pollution of the environment as cheaper means to make phosphorus available to birds from phytate. Phytate is the major form of phosphorus, abundantly found in cereal grains, beans and oilseed meals used in poultry diet but the monoga...

Surgical site infection (SSI) is a major complication following surgery and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, as well as increased costs (1). Over the past decades, the role of air as a vehicle of infection has been the subject of much interest and debate (1, 2). Guidelines for the design and ventilation of operating theatres (OTs) have been published, and threshold values h...

Nutrient pollution can increase the prevalence and severity of coral disease and bleaching in ambient temperature conditions or during experimental thermal challenge. However, there have been few opportunities to study the effects of nutrient pollution during natural thermal anomalies. Here we present results from an experiment conducted during the 2014 bleaching event in the Florida Keys, USA,...

The environmental risk of heavy metal pollution is pronounced in soils adjacent to large industrial complexes. It is important to investigate the functioning of soil microorganisms in ecosystems exposed to long-term contamination by heavy metals. We studied the potential effects of heavy metals on microbial biomass, activity, and community composition in soil near a copper smelter in China. The...

The effects of long-term heavy metal deposition on microbial community structure and the level of bacterial community tolerance were studied along two different gradients in Scandinavian coniferous forest soils. One was near the Harjavalta smelter in Finland, and one was at Ronnskar in Sweden. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis revealed a gradual change in soil microbial communities along ...

Heavy metal pollution is a serious global environmental problem as it adversely affects plant growth and genetic variation. It also alters the composition and activity of soil microbial communities. The objectives of this study were to determine the soil microbial diversity, bermudagrass genetic variation in Cd contaminated or uncontaminated soils from Hunan province of China, and to evaluate C...

Biomass allocation is an important plant trait that responds plastically to environmental heterogeneities. However, the effects on this trait of pollutants owing to human activities remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the response of biomass allocation of Phragmites australis to petroleum pollution by a ¹³CO₂ pulse-labelling technique. Our data show that plant biomass signifi...

The acceleration of urbanization and rapid development of economy led to making surface water pollution problem becoming more critical. Water treatment technologies can be generally classified as insitu or ex-situ. In this paper, a comprehensive review describing the latest surface water remediation developments and technologies that can be suitable for in-situ applications. The review covers t...

Current reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable due to pollution and finite supplies. Microbial cell factories serve as promising alternatives renewable energy resources. Microorganisms generate electricity in their metabolism; act as catalysts for converting the chemical energy into electricity. In Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC), electrons provided by microorganisms flow through an electrical ext...

The Water Framework Directive requires the development of biological tools which can act as early-warning indicators of a sudden increase (accidental pollution) or decrease (recovery due to prevention) of the chemical status of aquatic systems. River biofilms, which respond quickly to modifications of environmental parameters and also play a key part in the functioning of aquatic ecosystems, ar...