Journal of Natural Environment
Year:2021 | Volume:74 | Issue:3|Papers Count:15

The habitat suitability model is a common method for assessing the habitat needs of fish in freshwater systems. The aim of this study was to investigate the habitat suitability of Kiabi loach (Oxynemachilus kiabii) in the Dinor River, Kermanshah province, Iran. For this purpose, 7 stations along the Dinor River were sampled in April 2017 using an electrofishing device. In addition to recording fish abundance, environmental characteristics including water temperature, water velocity (m/s), depth (cm), river width (m), average bedrock diameter (cm), alkalinity (pH), electrical conductivity (EC), and total dissolved solids (TDS) was recorded at each station. The habitat suitability index was evaluated according to the relationship between environmental variables and fish abundance. Based on the results, the most desirable habitats for O. kiabii in the Dinor river are areas with a river width of 6-7.2 m, river depth of 26-34 cm, water flow velocity of 0.17-0.45 m/s, water temperature of 22-23 °C, EC values of 300-350 μS/cm, pH values of 7.80-8.92, TDS values of 580-610 mg/l, and average diameter of bedrock less than 5-6 cm. In the present study, the value of habitat suitability index (HSI) for O. kiabii was determined to be 0.51. Overall, the results showed that the Dinor River, in terms of habitat characteristics, compared to other fish species (such as Alburnus sellal), has a moderate suitability for the Kiabi loach. This indicates that the expansion of human activities in the Dinor River basin has disrupted the habitat range of this endemic species. Therefore, conservation priorities need to be considered by fisheries experts and managers in order to conserve and manage the stocks of this valuable species.

In the past few decades, the excessive consumption of natural resources, the rapid growth of urbanization, and the expansion of industrial activities have led to the destruction of the environment and the instability of urban communities. The phenomenon of sustainable development for the protection of natural resources is considered a collective heritage of humanity. The ecological footprint index is a basis for the relationship between man and nature. If the natural capacity exceeds, society will move towards instability. Therefore, the ecological footprint is an appropriate assessment tool to preserve the environment in the way to reach sustainable development. In this research, using the ecological footprint index, the sustainability of Birjand city development in 1397 has been studied. The ecological footprint of the consumption sector was assessed in five sections including housing, transportation, services, food, and goods, and after calculating the footprint, the biological capacity for the city of Birjand was calculated. To find out the stability or instability in Birjand city, bio-capacity and ecological footprint were compared. The results of this study showed that the ecological footprint per capita of Birjand for all the sections is 0.56 hectares, which is less than the national footprint (2.7 hectares). In the meantime, The biological capacity per capita for the city of Birjand was 0.77 hectares indicating the city is in a stable state.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of environmental contaminants in the soil that have caused concerns due to toxicity, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. The bioremedial process has been considered as a suitable solution for the improvement of contaminated soils by many researchers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to isolate, identify and evaluate the growth potential of bacteria degrading petroleum compounds isolated from soil contaminated with petroleum products in the presence of phenanthrene for biological improvement. In this study, 25 soil samples were first collected from 0-35 Cm depth of oil-contaminated areas located in southern Iran (the Bushehr region) and then isolated from suitable culture media of oil-degrading bacteria. Afterward, the isolated bacteria were identified by biochemical methods such as oxidase test and catalase test, and microbial methods such as gram staining, spores staining, and fluorescence staining. In this study, out of 60 oil-degrading bacteria, 19 bacteria called PDB 1-19 were determined in the presence of phenanthrene. Finally, PDB 19 Chryseobacterium spp, PDB 8 Sphingobacterium spp, PDB 13 Acinetobacter johnsonii, and PDB 10 Achromobacter xylosoxidans were selected as the most efficient bacteria. The results of this study show that by identifying and screening effective bacteria, utilizing their microbial potentials, and creating optimal conditions, they can be used to bioremediate oil-contaminated soils at industrial and applied scales.

The ecological footprint is a resource accounting tool that helps countries to assess their environmental resources. In recent years, human demand for nature has exceeded the capacity of the planet, and most countries are facing ecological deficit problems. Due to the importance of the issue, in this article, the impact of natural resources, foreign direct investment, and human capital on the ecological footprint of Iran from the years 1980 to 2019 was investigated using the autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model and the Granger causality test. The results indicate that natural resources and foreign direct investment, in the short term (with a lag) and long term, have a positive and significant impact on the ecological footprint while human capital has no significant effect on the ecological footprint. The error correction model in this study was set at -0.94, indicating if it moves from one period to another, 0.94% of the dependent variable’s deviation (ecological footprint) is corrected from the long-term path of the independent variables. Granger causality results also indicate that ecological footprint has a two-way causality relationship with natural resources while showing neither a causal relationship with foreign direct investment nor with human capital.

The balance between water supply and demand and the related services is a key issue in land planning with a water resources management approach. The purpose of this study is to establish a proper supply flow through mapping surface water production service in the Haraz Watershed using the water yield model as a supply and demand utility. In this study, based on the input layers including limiting root depth, average annual rainfall, water content plant availability, reference evapotranspiration, land use/land cover, biophysical table, as well as watershed boundaries and sub-basins surface water production service was modeled. Then, the demand map of the watershed was prepared based on programmable water in the water yield model, and the flow between supply and demand was calculated to form the equilibrium and imbalances.The results show that the Payabeheraz sub-basin with an annual water yield of 69 million m3, due to precipitation of 618 mm per year, concentration of agricultural lands, and urban areas, had the highest water yield in 2017. In the meantime, Payabetalar and the Siahroud sub-basins, owning the amount of industrial lands in addition to the agricultural lands, and high population concentration, have the highest demand with an annual average of 800 million m3. Besides, the results indicate that in the Haraz watershed, the imbalance in supply and demand has led to a lot of pressure on the water resources so that continuing the current situation, a sharp decline in the water resources is imminent. In order to balance and maintain stability in both demand and supply sections, reallocating the population (to reduce demand in the pressurized sub-basins) and land cover/land use arrangement (to increase the supply and maintenance of water resources) have been proposed.

Mucoralean fungi are a group of basal fungi related to zygomycetes which can be found in different environments all over the world. They are a part of fermented food production, secondary metabolites and enzymes. Considering their fast growth and their ability to produce a different sort of enzymes, we seek for their role in oil-polluted sites’ bioremediation. Using oil floating method, fungal isolates were collected and identified both morphologically and molecularly using ITS gene as a barcoding marker and phylogenetic tree. In total, 131 isolates were collected. Among them, 27 mucoralean fungi were listed as follows: Rhizopus (n=19), Mucor (n=4), Actinomucor (n=2), Lichtheimia, and Cunninghamella one isolate per each. These isolated strains from Iran were identified correctly based on molecular methods and then deposited in the culture collections of the Netherlands (Westerdijk Institute) and Warsaw University. Being isolated from oil-polluted environments, these isolates have bioremediation potentials.

Many environmental threats are the consequences of human behavior. The solution to reducing the environmental problems is environmental education and changing human behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of virtual environmental education on the attitude and pro-environmental behavior of primary school female students. The study was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test. 60 students were selected through a multistage sampling method from female students of primary schools of Abyek city for the 2019-2020 educational year, and they were then randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. The environmental education was instructed with the experimental group during 12 sessions, three times per week. The data were collected using the standard environmental attitudes and environmental behaviors questionnaires. The reliability of the questionnaires was calculated through Cronbach alpha (0.85 and 0.82 respectively for environmental attitudes and environmental behavior, respectively). The ANCOVA test was used for analyzing the information. The results revealed a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test of the experimental group not only in environmental attitudes but also in their pro-environmental performance (P<0.01). The findings confirmed that age-specific environmental education plays a crucial role in enhancing the environmental attitude and performance of the students so that it can be recommended as a preventive strategy against the environment destruction.

Increasing the number of water quality monitoring stations and conducting multiple sampling is one of the measures to improve the productivity of river water quality control operations. The figures must be determined by scientific methods so that the system dynamism can be explained. Increasing rivers pollution, which sometimes oversteps the self-purification limitation of the rivers, causes great damage to the environment. In the present study, while modeling the behavior of the river in the conditions of effluent entry whether point or non-point, multiple criteria decision-making method (AHP) was conducted to prioritize monitoring operations at river stations. For this purpose, the Gedarchay River was chosen as a case study. Based on the WQI results, water quality parameters rose alongside the river with rural sewer flowing. As such, stations 7 and 8 in scenario I showed moderate quality due to increased pollution loading while other stations and by extension the other scenarios indicated good to excellent figures. Considering water quality monitoring operations (), the existing stations were prioritized. The weights of the main criteria were determined as follows C1 = 0.483, C2 = 0.157, C3 = 0.272 and C4 = 0.088, and the stations 1-8 were weighted respectively 5.1, 7.9, 8.6, 16.6, 16.3, 17.5, 16.2 and 12.0, confirming the importance of station 6 in getting prioritized.

Water resources development projects have many environmental effects, the most important of which are changing the natural regime of the river and reducing the downstream flow. The use of hydrological models allows for sustainable planning in water resources management. The Qarachai River Basin in the Salt Lake Basin has been affected by human activities in recent years. In the present study, the hydrological behavior of Qarachai catchment was modeled using 21WEAP software. The model was developed, calibrated and validated for a 25-year statistical period (1993 to 2017). To calibrate the model, the observed discharge values of Qarachai River located at Asgarabad station (catchment outlet) were calculated with computational values using Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient index. A 13-year statistical period (from 1993 to 2006) was considered for model calibration. The Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient for the calibration period was obtained 0.86. An 11-year statistical period (2006-2007) was considered for validation. The value of Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient for the validation period was obtained 0.74. These results indicate the good efficiency of the WEAP model in simulating the hydrological behavior of the Qarachai catchment. After analyzing five management scenarios, finally a combined scenario with a reliability index above 95% for each consumption sector as well as meeting the environmental needs was recognized as the top scenario. The results of the research indicate that with the implementation of this scenario, the downward trend of the aquifer compared to the current situation will be greatly adjusted and exit from the critical state will be possible by applying appropriate management measures.

The purpose of this study is to identify the important internal and external factors in achieving sustainable use and conservation of the Amir Kalayeh Wetland based on communication, education, participation, and public awareness program (CEPA). The general vision is “the Amir Kalayeh wetland is a sustainable ecosystem that is wisely used and properly conserved by the trained stakeholders whom have been aware of the values and the threatening factors”. The SWOT model followed by the QSPM method has been implemented to analyze data and provide a conservation strategy approaching sustainable development in the Amirkalayeh Wetland according to the CEPA criteria. For this purpose, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the Amirkalayeh wetland were determined by consulting 45 stakeholders. The internal factor evaluation (IFE) matrix with a score of 2.92 points out that the wetland had more strengths than the existing weaknesses while the external factor evaluation (EFE) with a score of 2.19 points out that there were more threats than opportunities. The results showed the sustainable participation of the wetland stakeholders (ST1) and the interaction between the organizations, executive bodies, and local communities (through the development of a wetland management program to prioritize awareness of the wetland's legal regime) (ST1) received the highest ranks.

The availability of safe and clean water is one of the most important issues facing human beings. Groundwater and surface water pollution with nitrate is a serious problem in many parts of the world. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of using wheat straw nano adsorbent as an inexpensive and cost-effective adsorbent in the removal of nitrate from aqueous solutions. In this study, the effect of factors such as pH, adsorbent mass, contact time, and initial nitrate concentration was tested. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the adsorbent studied and its application in discontinuous tests, desorption tests were performed. Lagergren Pseudo-first-order kinetics model and Ho Pseudo-second-order kinetics model were used to study the adsorption process. In addition, equilibrium adsorption data were analyzed using Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models. According to the obtained results, the optimal pH adsorption and the equilibrium time for the studied adsorbent were respectively 5 and 30 minutes. The amount of adsorbent showed a direct relationship with nitrate uptake. Increasing the amount of wheat straw by 0.5 gr had no significant impact on the efficiency of nitrate uptake. With increasing initial nitrate concentration, the removal efficiency of the nitrate ion by wheat adsorbent decreased. Based on the results, the adsorption process followed the Pseudo-second-order kinetics model Ho, and the adsorption data were more consistent with the Freundlich isotherm model. Therefore, it can be stated that wheat straw nano adsorbent can be recommended as a suitable and inexpensive absorbent with the least technology in nitrate removal.

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), as a regional management plan in Iran, is based on the conservation, development, and coordination-integration approaches. The conservation approach has focused on identifying and ranking the environmental issues, and presenting the action plan to conserve natural resources and overcome problems. One of the pre-requisites of this action plan is to investigate the environmental issues in the coastal-maritime area. Therefore, this study was carried out under the integrated management of the coastal zone of Bushehr Province aiming to determine the level of the importance of the environmental issues in the Asaluyeh coastal zone, and to present an action plan to protect ecosystems and overcoming of the problems. Accordingly, environmental issues were identified through reviewing the governmental documents and several valid references. A questionnaire was prepared based on the most important environmental issues and then filled by the elite community in Bushehr province, specifically Asaluyeh city, based on the Likert scale. The final step of the analysis was performed using the DPSIR framework. The Results showed that coastal-maritime environmental issues had the highest importance (8 - 11.75) consulting the elite persons in Asaluyeh city, which indicates the role of anthropogenic activities resulting in natural resources and ecosystems getting polluted. The high-ranked environmental issues are as the following: inappropriate landfilling and disposal of waste, improper disposal of wastewater, pollution of beaches with heavy metals, pollution of Asaluyeh estuary with urban-industrial wastewaters, reduction of aquatic reserves, population, and overloading of trashes on beaches. Consecutively, the air quality index driven by oil and gas industries was another important metric with a 7.2 importance level. The present research has presented an action plan consisting of 100 executive actions. Furthermore, the responsive stockholders and partners, as well as quantitative indexes for evaluation and monitoring actions through certain milestones up to the horizon of 2025 have been introduced. The measure to be implemented driving forces-based actions including preventive policies, reconsideration, and awareness of decision-makers; pressure-based actions focused on spatial land use planning and using natural resources; state-based actions including recovery, restoration, amendment, and empowerment of ecosystems, reconstructing the existing guidelines in addition to developing health and insurance for beneficiaries; and impact-based actions including spatial planning and beneficiaries’ failures, control and reduction strategies, as well as monitoring and assessments. All these measures were finally submitted to local and provincial decision-makers as a directive. It is also believed that the present research method could be inspired by other studies addressing the same aims in other coastal areas.

Having considered governmental constraints, the feasibility assessment of reassigning the nomadic rangelands’ responsibility to the nomads is underway. Accomplishing a study investigating the given proposal, the winter rangelands of Sargache-Bisim in Masjed-Soliman city were selected as a pilot. The evaluated indicators were rangelands capacity, rangelands condition, trend, and percent of utilization before arrival as well as after the departure of the nomads from the rangelands. The study took three years starting in 2016. For this purpose, 20 plots of 1 square meter were installed alongside two 500-meter transects, and the rangelands capacity indexes were defined using systematic-random sampling. The grazing results showed that most licensees did not have livestock; on the contrary, the herders present in the area did not have grazing licenses. The vegetation assessments also showed that the condition and trend of the rangeland before entering and after leaving the nomads were moderate and negative in type I; weak and negative in type II, respectively. Similarly, the capacity per hectare decreased during the operation period in both types. Utilization percentage increased in type I while decreasing significantly in type II. Conducting ANOVA, the results approved the significance of treatment of year-to-year surveying on all the vegetation parameters at 0.01 level. Comparison of the means, net productions were 92.433 and 72.833 for the first and last years, respectively. Meanwhile, rangeland capacity and utilization percentage were respectively 0.2717 and 41%, and 0.205 and 45% for the first and for the last year. In general, the impact of the defined co-management system in improving the rangeland conditions of Sargache-Bisim winter rangeland in Masjed-Soliman city was evaluated as weak. The more related organizations cooperate with tribal representatives, the more lucrative outcomes are achieved for beneficiaries.

Land use change is one of the factors affecting changes in the environmental parameters, such as land surface temperature. This increase in surface temperature severely affects human life, its health, and the ecosystem around it. In this regard, the present study was conducted to investigate the trend of landuse changes in the urban area of Kerman City and the resulting effects on surface temperature using Landsat OLI and TM satellite data from a period of 1990 to 2020. To achieve this goal, landuse changes in the six major classes of Residential and Man-made areas, Vegetation, Barrenlands with low vegetation, and Saline-lands without vegetation were studied. The results showed that in the study period, Residential and Man-made areas increased by 14.20%, and Vegetation landuses, Barrenlands with low vegetation, and Saline-lands without vegetation also decreased by 3.76, 8.23 and 2.22 percent, respectively.  The landuse changes were detected with a 0.87 kappa coefficient and overall accuracy above 0.90, which indicates sufficient accuracy in classification.The results showed that during the study period, the average value of the LST index increased from 42.26 ° C in 1990 to 47.4 ° C in 2020. The area of the classes above 33 ° C LST has also increased from 6.33% in 1990 to around 31.46% in 2020. The values of the NDVI index were decreasing until 2010, but by 2020, the value of this index has increased again. Node-wise, the study also showed that in 1990, the highest value of land surface was related to Saline-lands without vegetation with an average temperature of 47.30 ° C while in 2000, 2010, and 2020, the highest average temperatures with values of 46.51, 47.30, and 50.64 ° C were respectively related to Urban and Man-made areas. Accordingly, the results obtained in this study can significantly help urban administrators and policymakers with sustainable development and minimize the effects of Kerman's urban heat island.

One of the most important issues related to climate is air pollution. Today, due to the increasing use of fossil fuels, the concentration of air pollutants, especially nitrogen dioxide (NO2), has increased and has caused many problems for human health. The study investigated the temporal-spatial study of tropospheric NO2 column density using the OMI sensor data during the study period of 2005-2020 over the Iranian territory. In the long-term, the average NO2 was estimated to be 1.57e + 15 molecules/cm2, with the highest amount over Tehran (1.5e + 16 molecules/cm2) and the lowest amount over suburban areas (1e + 14 molecules/cm2). In addition to the metropolis of Tehran, cities such as Isfahan, Ahvaz, Shiraz, Tabriz, Rasht, Sari, Mashhad, Qom, Qazvin, and the industrial areas of the southern coast had high concentrations. The time-series analysis of the tropospheric NO2 column density during the 5823 consecutive day study period showed an increasing trend over Iran considering the averages change from 1.36e + 15 molecules/cm2 in 2005 to 1.78e + 15 molecules/cm2 in 2020. The seasonality results also showed that the maximum and minimum NO2 values occur in winter (1.57e + 15 molecule/cm2) and summer (1.31e + 15 molecule/cm2), respectively. As such, November, December, and January had the highest, and the months of June, July, and August had the lowest monthly mean NO2 column densities. The higher concentrations of NO2 during the cold seasons are mainly due to the higher activity of emission sources in addition to the specific weather conditions at this period of the year. Besides, its harmful effects will intensify in the future referring the increasing trend of NO2 pollutants. Therefore, before the further increase, preventive measures should be taken by the relevant authorities.