Environmental Research At The Leading Edge

The environment is considered the surroundings in which an organism operates, including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans and their interrelation. It is this environment which is both so valuable, on the one hand, and so endangered on the other. And it is people who are by and large ruining the environment both for themselves and for all other organisms. This book reviews the latest research in this field which is vital for everyone.

This volume presents new leading-edge research on environmental biodegradation which is the destruction of organic compounds by micro-organisms. Micro-organisms, particularly bacteria, are responsible for the decomposition of both natural and synthetic organic compounds in nature. Mineralisation results in complete conversion of a compound to its inorganic mineral constituents (for example, carbon dioxide from carbon, sulphate or sulphide from organic sulfur, nitrate or ammonium from organic nitrogen, phosphate from organophosphates, or chloride from organochlorine). Since carbon comprises the greatest mass of organic compounds, mineralisation can be considered in terms of CO2 evolution. Radioactive carbon-14 (14C) isotopes enable scientists to distinguish between mineralisation arising from contaminants and soil organic matter. However, mineralisation of any compound is never 100% because some of it (1040% of the total amount degraded) is incorporated into the cell mass or products that become part of the amorphous soil organic matter, commonly referred to as humus. Thus, biodegradation comprises mineralisation and conversion to innocuous products, namely biomass and humus. Primary biodegradation is more limited in scope and refers to the disappearance of the compound as a result of its biotransformation to another product. Compounds that are readily biodegradable are generally utilised as growth substrates by single micro-organisms. Many of the components of petroleum products (and frequent ground-water contaminants), such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, are utilised by many genera of bacteria as sole carbon sources for growth and energy.

In recent years the topic of environmental management has become very common. In sustainable development conditions, central and local governments much more often notice the need of acting in ways that diminish negative impact on environment. Environmental management may take place on many different levels - starting from global level, e.g. climate changes, through national and regional level (environmental policy) and ending on micro level. This publication shows many examples of environmental management. The diversity of presented aspects within environmental management and approaching the subject from the perspective of various countries contributes greatly to the development of environmental management field of research.

In anticipation of future environmental science and engineering challenges and technologic advances, EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to assess the overall capabilities of the agency to develop, obtain, and use the best available scientific and technologic information and tools to meet persistent, emerging, and future mission challenges and opportunities. Although the committee cannot predict with certainty what new environmental problems EPA will face in the next 10 years or more, it worked to identify some of the common drivers and common characteristics of problems that are likely to occur. Tensions inherent to the structure of EPA's work contribute to the current and persistent challenges faced by the agency, and meeting those challenges will require development of leading-edge scientific methods, tools, and technologies, and a more deliberate approach to systems thinking and interdisciplinary science. Science for Environmental Protection: The Road Ahead outlines a framework for building science for environmental protection in the 21st century and identified key areas where enhanced leadership and capacity can strengthen the agency's abilities to address current and emerging environmental challenges as well as take advantage of new tools and technologies to address them. The foundation of EPA science is strong, but the agency needs to continue to address numerous present and future challenges if it is to maintain its science leadership and meet its expanding mandates.

This series covers leading-edge research focusing on the environment, including current research data on coal fly ash as a recycling treasure and environmental application; airborne fungi and bacteria in public indoor environments; integrated management of Natura 2000 forest spaces; biochemical biomarkers in aquatic ecotoxicology; the vulnerability of northern cities in North America to weather-related hazards; impact of decreasing Arctic pack ice on the higher trophic levels and new bioindicator sampling procedures in indoor and outdoor air quality control.