Fungal communities in oil contaminated mangrove sediments - Who is in the mud?

Mangroves are ecosystems located in tropical and subtropical regions of the world and are vital for coastal protection. Their unique characteristics make them hotspots for carbon cycling and biological diversity. Studies on isolated filamentous fungi and environmental and anthropogenic factors that influence sediments offer new understandings on how to preserve mangroves. Here we report on the filamentous fungi isolated from four mangroves. We correlated fungal community composition with sediment texture, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons concentration (oil pollution), pH, salinity, organic matter, total and thermotolerant coliforms (sewage pollution). In total we identified 34 genera and 97 species. The most polluted sites had highest species richness whereas the best preserved site showed the lowest species richness. Oil spill and sewage pollution were identified as the drivers of fungal community composition in the most polluted sites. We found very distinct fungal communities with no >5 species shared between any two mangrove sites.

Effect of anhydrous ethanol/gasoline blends on performance and exhaust emissions of spark-ignited non-road engines.

Ethanol is a renewable fuel and it is considered an alternative to gasoline in Otto-cycle engines. The present study evaluated the behavior of exhaustion gas carbon monoxide (CO) and total hydrocarbons (THC) according to the levels of anhydrous ethyl alcohol (AEA) added to gasoline in different proportions (E0, E10, E20, E27, that is, pure gasoline and its blends with AEA at 10, 20, and 27% v/v) in the use of non-road single cylinder engines of different powers (13 and 6.5 hp), to the loads applied to engine-generators and the air-fuel ratio (A/F) admitted to the engine cylinders. Also, the performance of engine-generators was verified in terms of mass, specific and energetic consumption and efficiency of the evaluated systems for the same blends and loads. The results showed that an increase in the AEA content in the blend resulted in significant drops in CO and THC concentrations for both engine-generators, while fuel consumption showed a slight upward trend; the increases in applied loads resulted in an increase in CO and THC concentrations and fuel consumption. In general, a higher AEA content (oxygenated) in the blends had a greater effect on gaseous emissions compared to the effect on consumption and system efficiency.

Inativação de microrganismos indicadores de contaminação fecal por radiação ultravioleta e avaliação dos fenômenos de fotorreativação e recuperação no escuro / Inactivation of indicator microorganisms of faecal contamination by ultraviolet radiation and evaluation of photoreactivation and dark repair phenomena

RESUMO Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo avaliar o desempenho da radiação ultravioleta (UV) para a desinfecção de efluente final de estação de tratamento de esgoto (ETE) sanitário municipal, em escala de bancada de laboratório e operação em batelada. Foram analisadas as interferências dos parâmetros operacionais tempo de exposição (s) à radiação e altura de lâmina líquida (cm) do efluente no reator UV. A eficiência do processo de desinfecção foi avaliada empregando os microrganismos indicadores Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens), colifagos, Escherichia coli (E. coli) e coliformes totais (CT). Após a desinfecção, foram avaliados os fenômenos de recuperação microbiológica fotorreativação e recuperação no escuro para E. coli e CT. Os resultados indicaram efetiva inativação dos microrganismos indicadores à radiação UV no decorrer do tempo de exposição, o que foi comprovado estatisticamente pela ANOVA de medidas repetidas. C. perfringens foi o microrganismo que apresentou a maior resistência à inativação. Nos ensaios de recuperação microbiológica, ambos os mecanismos foram considerados insignificantes, o que foi comprovado estatisticamente pelos testes t de Student (dados paramétricos) e Wilcoxon (dados não paramétricos). Em todas as análises, o nível de significância foi de 5%.

ABSTRACT This research aimed to evaluate the performance of ultraviolet radiation (UV) for disinfecting effluents from a municipal wastewater treatment plant, in laboratory bench scale and batch operation. The interference of the operational parameters of exposure time (s) to the radiation and the level of liquid blade (cm) of the effluent in the UV reactor were analyzed. The efficiency of the disinfection process was checked using the indicators microorganisms Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens), coliphages, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and total coliforms (TC). After disinfection, some tests were carried out to evaluate the phenomena of microbiological recovery: photoreactivation and dark repair, for E. coli and TC. The results indicate effective inactivation of indicator microorganisms by UV radiation during the time of exposure, which was statistically proved by repeated measures ANOVA. C. perfringens was the microorganism that showed the highest resistance against UV inactivation. In microbiological recovery tests, both mechanisms were considered insignificant, which was statistically proven by the Student (t test - parametric data) and the Wilcoxon (nonparametric data) tests. In all analyses, the level of significance was 5%.