Nano-biofortification of different crops to immune against COVID-19: A review.

Human health and its improvement are the main target of several studies related to medical, agricultural and industrial sciences. The human health is the primary conclusion of many studies. The improving of human health may include supplying the people with enough and safe nutrients against malnutrition to fight against multiple diseases like COVID-19. Biofortification is a process by which the edible plants can be enriched with essential nutrients for human health against malnutrition. After the great success of biofortification approach in the human struggle against malnutrition, a new biotechnological tool in enriching the crops with essential nutrients in the form of nanoparticles to supplement human diet with balanced diet is called nano-biofortification. Nano biofortification can be achieved by applying the nano particles of essential nutrients (e.g., Cu, Fe, Se and Zn) foliar or their nano-fertilizers in soils or waters. Not all essential nutrients for human nutrition can be biofortified in the nano-form using all edible plants but there are several obstacles prevent this approach. These stumbling blocks are increased due to COVID-19 and its problems including the global trade, global breakdown between countries, and global crisis of food production. The main target of this review was to evaluate the nano-biofortification process and its using against malnutrition as a new approach in the era of COVID-19. This review also opens many questions, which are needed to be answered like is nano-biofortification a promising solution against malnutrition? Is COVID-19 will increase the global crisis of malnutrition? What is the best method of applied nano-nutrients to achieve nano-biofortification? What are the challenges of nano-biofortification during and post of the COVID-19?

Ecofriendly remediation technologies for wastewater contaminated with heavy metals with special focus on using water hyacinth and black tea wastes: a review.

Treatment of water contaminated with heavy metals is challenging. Heavy metals are non-degradable, persistent in the environment, have a high dispersion capacity by water, can bioaccumulate, and represent risks to human and environmental health. Conventional treatment methods have disadvantages; however, adsorption in biomass is a highly promising method with high efficiency and low cost that avoids many of the disadvantages of conventional methods. Black tea (BT) wastes and water hyacinth (WH) have attracted attention for their ability to remove heavy metals from wastewater. Utilizing these approaches can remove contaminants and effectively manage problematic invasive species and wastes. The conventional uses of BT and WH were efficient for removing heavy metals from wastewater. Due to the unique and distinct properties and advantages of biochar and nano-forms of biosorbents, the use of BT and WH in these forms is promising to achieve sustainable heavy metals removal from wastewater. However, more study is needed to confirm preliminary results.

Planning for disposal of COVID-19 pandemic wastes in developing countries: a review of current challenges.

The health sector is critical to the well-being of any country, but developing countries have several obstacles that prevent them from providing adequate health care. This became an even larger concern after the COVID-19 outbreak left millions of people dead worldwide and generated huge amounts of infected or potentially infected wastes. The management and disposal of medical wastes during and post-COVID-19 represent a major challenge in all countries, but this challenge is particularly great for developing countries that do not have robust waste disposal infrastructure. The main problems in developing countries include inefficient treatment procedures, limited capacity of healthcare facilities, and improper waste disposal procedures. The management of medical wastes in most developing countries was primitive prior to the pandemic. The improper treatment and disposal of these wastes in our current situation may further speed COVID-19 spread, creating a serious risk for workers in the medical and sanitation fields, patients, and all of society. Therefore, there is a critical need to discuss emerging challenges in handling, treating, and disposing of medical wastes in developing countries during and after the COVID-19 outbreak. There is a need to determine best disposal techniques given the conditions and limitations under which developing countries operate. Several open questions need to be investigated concerning this global issue, such as to what extent developing countries can control the expected environmental impacts of COVID-19, particularly those related to medical wastes? What are the projected management scenarios for medical wastes under the COVID-19 outbreak? And what are the major environmental risks posed by contaminated wastes related to COVID-19 treatment? Studies directed at the questions above, careful planning, the use of large capacity mobile recycling facilities, and following established guidelines for disposal of medical wastes should reduce risk of COVID-19 spread in developing countries.

Mobility, distribution, and potential risk assessment of selected trace elements in soils of the Nile Delta, Egypt.

Environmental pollution has received considerable attention over the last 50 years. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in pollution of the Nile Delta, Egypt, which is one of the longest settled deltaic systems in the world. Pollution in the delta is increasingly recognized as a serious health concern that requires proper management of ecosystems. Therefore, this project aimed to study the distribution and assess the risk associated with selected trace elements (TEs) in different soils (i.e., marine, fluvial, and lacustrine parent materials) in the northern Nile Delta. Mehlich-3 extraction was used to determine the availability of antimony, vanadium, strontium, and molybdenum in agro-ecosystems in this area and their spatial distributions were investigated. Five indices were used to assess ecological risk. Results showed that TEs were higher in the southern part of the study area because it is affected by multiple pollution sources. The available concentrations of TEs were Sr < V < Sb < Mo. The bioavailability of Sr was highest among the studied TEs. The studied indices suggested the study area was moderately polluted by Sr and Sb. Furthermore, the results showed that marine soils had higher TE levels then lacustrine and fluvial soils. The ecological risk assessment indicated that V and Mo were of natural origin, while Sr and Sb were anthropogenically linked. Therefore, the situation calls for planning to reduce pollution sources, especially in the protected north Nile Delta, so these productive soils do not threaten human and ecological health.

Size, distribution, and vulnerability of the global soil inorganic carbon.

Global estimates of the size, distribution, and vulnerability of soil inorganic carbon (SIC) remain largely unquantified. By compiling 223,593 field-based measurements and developing machine-learning models, we report that global soils store 2305 ± 636 (±1 SD) billion tonnes of carbon as SIC over the top 2-meter depth. Under future scenarios, soil acidification associated with nitrogen additions to terrestrial ecosystems will reduce global SIC (0.3 meters) up to 23 billion tonnes of carbon over the next 30 years, with India and China being the most affected. Our synthesis of present-day land-water carbon inventories and inland-water carbonate chemistry reveals that at least 1.13 ± 0.33 billion tonnes of inorganic carbon is lost to inland-waters through soils annually, resulting in large but overlooked impacts on atmospheric and hydrospheric carbon dynamics.