Due to the high salt content and pH value, the structure of saline-sodic soil was deteriorated, resulting in decreased soil fertility and inhibited soil element cycling. This, in turn, caused significant negative impacts on crop growth, posing a major challenge to global agriculture and food security. Despite numerous studies aimed at reducing the loss of plant productivity in saline-sodic soils, the knowledge regarding shifts in soil microbial communities and carbon/nitrogen cycling during saline-sodic soil improvement remains incomplete. Consequently, we developed a composite soil amendment to explore its potential to alleviate salt stress and enhance soil quality. Our findings demonstrated that the application of this composite soil amendment effectively enhanced microbial salinity resistance, promotes soil carbon fixation and nitrogen cycling, thereby reducing HCO3- concentration and greenhouse gas emissions while improving physicochemical properties and enzyme activity in the soil. Additionally, the presence of CaSO4 contributed to a decrease in water-soluble Na+ content, resulting in reduced soil ESP and pH by 14.64 % and 7.42, respectively. Our research presents an innovative approach to rehabilitate saline-sodic soil and promote ecological restoration through the perspective of elements cycles.

Chlorella sorokiniana, the dominant microalgal strain with fast growth rate and high nutrients' adsorption rate, was selected from the mature MBGS system. After adding C6-HSL and 3-oxo-C12-HSL to the MBGS consortia formed by combining it with mature AGS, it could also be found that C6-HSL accelerated the denitrification rate and improved the removal rate of TIN and TP effectively. Besides, the promoting effect of C6-HSL was slightly higher than that of 3-oxo-C12-HSL. By adjusting the concentration of C6-HSL (5 x 10(-9), 7.5 x 10(-7) and 2.5 x 10(-5) mol/L), the results revealed that adding 5 x 10(-9)moL/L C6-HSL significantly improved the efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus removal in MBGS consortia. However, adding higher concentration of C6-HSL (7.5 x 10(-7) mol/L) would lead to deterioration of TIN and COD degradation. The content of EPS secreted by bacteria was regulated by different concentrations of AHLs, and the PS/PN value decreased with the increasing trend of C6-HSL concentration. [GRAPHICS] .

In the present work, talc (a low-cost clay) encapsulated salts alginate (TAL) beads were synthesized by cross-linking with lanthanum ion and tested for phosphate adsorption. Multiple methods were applied for the characterization of composites. The combined effect of talc and lanthanum improved phosphate removal performance of TAL beads. Factors such as talc content, La3+ concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH, co-existing ions (Cl-, NO3- and SO42-) were studied in batch experiments. The optimized TAL-7 beads exhibited satisfactory selectivity towards phosphate in the coexistence of competing anions and could remain efficient phosphate removal in the pH range of 4-6. The phosphate removal efficiency reached to 95% with a maximum uptake of 16.4 mg P/g obtained at the optimal pH 4. Further experiments suggested that Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model could well describe the phosphate adsorption process of TAL-7 beads. Moreover, TAL-7 beads exhibited superior phosphate fixation performance in the long-term experiment. The results from adsorption experiment and characterization analysis demonstrated that TAL-7 beads could be a cost-effective and promising biosorbent for phosphate adsorption and fixation in the aqueous environment.

In order to utilize the discarded Chaenomeles sinensis seed (CSS) and develop low-cost biochar for heavy metal pollution control, this study pyrolyzed CSS to prepare biochar at three different temperatures (300, 450 and 600 °C). The physicochemical properties of CSS biochar such as elemental composition, surface area, surface morphology and surface functional groups were characterized. Its adsorption properties including kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamics were studied. The results showed that the adsorption equilibrium was reached at 5 h, which was relatively fast. CSS biochar prepared at 450 °C (CSS450) had the maximum adsorption capacity for Cr(VI) and Cu(II), which was 93.19 mg/g and 105.12 mg/g, respectively. The thermodynamic parameter ΔG0 < 0 and the isotherm parameter RL between 0 and 1 all revealed the feasibility and spontaneity of the adsorption process. The removal of Cr(VI) exhibited high efficiency in a wide pH range (1-10), while the removal of Cu(II) was pH-dependent and optimal at pH = 6. The coexisting ions in the solution showed slight inhibition of the adsorption of Cr(VI) and Cu(II). Additionally, Cu(II) exhibited better affinity for CSS450 than Cr(VI) in dynamic adsorption. This is the first study to prepare biochar from CSS and confirms its potential application for heavy metal remediation.