Characterization of Textile Industrial Effluents and its Effects on Aquatic Macrophytes and Algae

Textile industries release huge amount of effluents to aquatic systems, which contain toxic and hazardous pollutants degrading the environment. A laboratory scale study was conducted to characterize physicochemical parameters of local textile industrial effluents and evaluate their impact on aquatic macrophytes and algae. Total suspended solids (TSS) and total dissolved solid (TDS) was found 100 to 336 mg/L and 1856 to 4356 mg/L, respectively. The recorded pH was 9.6 to 11.2 and temperature 40.5 to 43°C. Dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) was recorded 0.11 to 0.5, 151.24 to 299.1 and 652.8 to 2304 mg/L, respectively. Electrical conductivity (EC) was monitored 2210 to 6020 μs/cm; salinity was found 1.1 to 3.3 ‰, and color 1890.75 to 5625 PCU. Zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu) were 0.0838 to 0.596, 0.0 to 0.0006, 0.018 to 0.1727 ppm, respectively. Except heavy metals concentrations all of the physicochemical parameters were found beyond the standard limit set by department of Environment (DoE). Textile industrial effluents showed the toxic effects on aquatic macrophytes and algae, as aquatic macrophytes could hardly survive 2 days on textile effluents and noticeable reduction of algal concentration was found when grown on textile effluents. Key words: Textile effluents; Toxic effects; Physicochemical parameter; Aquatic macrophytes; Algae DOI: 10.3329/bjsir.v45i1.5187 Bangladesh J. Sci. Ind. Res. 45(1), 79-84, 2010</jats:p

Galls of the temperate forest of southern South America: Argentina and Chile. In: Neotropical Insect Galls

South American temperate forests are of special conservation concern due to their highly endemic flora and fauna, and the occurrence of unique plant-animal interactions. Yet, knowledge regarding gall inducers diversity is limited although increasing rapidly in the last two decades. Here, we performed a review of the literature, supplemented with field collected data by the authors, in order to provide the most up to date knowledge of gall inducers\u2019 diversity associated with native woody species of the temperate forest of Chile and Argentina. We present data for 90 morphospecies of galls associated with 39 host-plant species (21 genera, 15 families), spanning insects and arachnids of at least 6 orders and nematodes. Most of this richness is associated to the best surveyed host-plant genus, Nothofagus, with up to 43 morphospecies of galls in just 8 dominant tree species. Moreover, we provide evidence that gall species richness across all woody host-plant species decreases with elevation, probably driven by decreased temperature and number of available host-plant species. However, this overall trend vary among host plant species and scales of observation. Overall, the study of gall diversity and the biotic and abiotic factors that shape their distribution in these austral forests offer an exciting and fertile field for future research. Besides emphasizing the need for more in depth taxonomic and diversity studies of the gall fauna of these forests, we propose several future lines of research that promise to further elucidate our understanding of the evolution of plant-gall interactions in these forests