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Water
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Impacts of Environmental Change and Human Activities on Aquatic Ecosystems
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Impacts of Environmental Change and Human Activities on Aquatic Ecosystems

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity and Functionality of Aquatic Ecosystems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2024 | Viewed by 2273

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jian Hu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Interests: isotope geochemistry; ecological risk assessment; heavy metal pollution; organic pollution
Prof. Dr. Guilin Han

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Interests: hydrology; hydro-geochemistry; water chemistry; water quality; aquatic geochemistry; isotopic geochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Qian Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: hydrology; hydro-geochemistry; aquatic ecology; aquatic geochemistry; isotopic geochemistry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, due to natural environmental changes and human activities, aquatic ecosystems have faced unprecedented challenges. Natural environmental shifts, including climate change, shifts in precipitation patterns, ecosystem degradation, and occurrences like droughts, extreme rainfall, and rising global temperatures, have exerted extensive and profound impacts on aquatic ecosystems. These changes have resulted in the loss of biodiversity, habitat destruction, and the disruption of ecological processes. Simultaneously, unsustainable human activities like excessive industrialization, urbanization, and agricultural production have led to the degradation of water quality and aquatic ecosystems, further disturbing the balance of aquatic ecosystems.

The aim of this Special Issue is to present our understanding of the impacts of natural environmental changes and human activities on aquatic ecosystems and the approaches to resolve these issues, thereby providing important theoretical and practical pollution control and sustainable development solutions. This Special Issue welcomes original research and review articles, and its scope includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

  1. The monitoring and assessment of hydrogeological changes.
  2. The management and conservation of aquatic ecosystems.
  3. Pollutant migration and risk assessment.
  4. The sustainable development of aquatic ecosystems.

Dr. Jian Hu
Prof. Dr. Guilin Han
Dr. Qian Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • aquatic ecosystems
  • migration and transformation
  • source identification
  • risk assessment
  • sustainable development

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 5546 KiB  
Article
A Comprehensive Assessment of the Ecological State of the Transboundary Irtysh River (Kazakhstan, Central Asia)
by Elena Krupa, Sophia Romanova, Aizada Serikova and Larisa Shakhvorostova
Water 2024, 16(7), 973; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16070973 - 27 Mar 2024
Viewed by 756
Abstract
The diverse anthropogenic load on the transboundary Irtysh River necessitates an assessment of its ecological state, which was the goal of this work. We conducted this research in July 2023 in the upper and lower reaches of the Kazakh part of the Irtysh [...] Read more.
The diverse anthropogenic load on the transboundary Irtysh River necessitates an assessment of its ecological state, which was the goal of this work. We conducted this research in July 2023 in the upper and lower reaches of the Kazakh part of the Irtysh basin. We determined transparency; temperature; pH; salinity (TDS); oxygen, N-NO3, N-NO2, N-NH4, PO4, Mn, Fe, Si, Cd, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr, Co, and Hg contents; permanganate index; and zooplankton variables at 27 stations. We assessed the ecological state of the river by comparing the contents of pollutants with their maximum permissible concentrations (MPCfw), Classification Scales, and bioindications. An excess of MPCfw was detected for N-NO2, Cu, and Fe and locally for Cr and Zn. According to the Classification Scales, most analysed variables corresponded to slightly polluted waters; N-NO2, Cr, and Zn corresponded to moderately and heavily polluted waters. Zooplankton was represented by 82 species, with an average abundance of 6728 individuals/m3, biomass of 2.81 mg/m3, Shannon index of 1.99–2.08 bit, ∆-Shannon of 0.09, and average individual mass of 0.0019 mg. The spatial distribution of abiotic and biotic variables indicated increased organic and toxic pollution downstream in the Irtysh. Potential sources of pollution of the Irtysh basin are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Environmental Change and Human Activities on Aquatic Ecosystems)
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22 pages, 11635 KiB  
Article
Nitrate Source and Transformation in Groundwater under Urban and Agricultural Arid Environment in the Southeastern Nile Delta, Egypt
by Alaa M. Kasem, Zhifang Xu, Hao Jiang, Wenjing Liu, Jiangyi Zhang and Ahmed M. Nosair
Water 2024, 16(1), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16010022 - 20 Dec 2023
Viewed by 996
Abstract
With the intensification of human activities, nitrate pollutants in groundwater are receiving increasing attention worldwide. Especially in the arid Nile Delta of Egypt, groundwater is one of the most valuable water resources in the region. Identifying the source of nitrate in groundwater with [...] Read more.
With the intensification of human activities, nitrate pollutants in groundwater are receiving increasing attention worldwide. Especially in the arid Nile Delta of Egypt, groundwater is one of the most valuable water resources in the region. Identifying the source of nitrate in groundwater with strong human disturbances is important to effective water resource management. This paper examined the stable isotopes (δ15N/δ18O-NO3 and δ2H/δ18O-H2O) and the hydrogeochemical parameters of the shallow groundwaters in the arid southeast of the Nile Delta to assess the potential sources and transformation processes of nitrate under severe urban and agricultural activities. The results revealed that the groundwaters were recharged by the Nile River. Meanwhile, the infiltration of irrigation water occurred in the west, while the mixing with the deep groundwater occurred in the east regions of the study area. The TDS, SO42−, NO3−, and Mn2+ concentrations of groundwaters (n = 55) exceeded the WHO permissible limit with 34.6%, 23.6%, 23.6%, and 65.5%, respectively. The NO3− concentrations in the shallow groundwaters ranged from 0.42 mg/L to 652 mg/L, and the higher levels were observed in the middle region of the study area where the unconfined condition prevailed. It extended to the deep groundwater and eastward of the study area in the groundwater flow direction. The δ15N-NO3 and δ18O-NO3 values suggested that the groundwater NO3− in the west and east regions of semi-confined condition were largely from the nitrification of soil organic nitrogen (SON) and chemical fertilizer (CF). In contrast, wastewater input (e.g., domestic sewage and unlined drains) and prevalent denitrification were identified in the middle region. The denitrification might be tightly coupled with the biogeochemical cycling of manganese. This study provides the first report on the groundwater NO3− dynamics in the Nile Delta, which generated valuable clues for effective water resource management in the arid region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Environmental Change and Human Activities on Aquatic Ecosystems)
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