Stilyana Lincheva

• PhD
• Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"

The current environment and climate scenario sound worrying for the future. Serious mitigation measures are needed to reduce the impact of global threats and achieve decarbonization goals. Diversifying the energy portfolio and prioritizing renewable energy projects are at the forefront of these efforts. Hydropower is a critical source, providing 71...

During adaptation to waters that are rich in xenobiotics, biological systems pass through multiple stages. The first one is related to the restructuring of communities, pronounced destruction of the structure, and multiplication of active biodegradants. The purpose of the present research was to describe the microbiome restructuring that occurs dur...

Landfill leachate is generated from waste degradation in landfill sites, and its treatment includes biological or combined treatment with physico-chemical methods. A frequently applied technology in the biological stage of landfill leachate treatment plants is based on denitrification and nitrification. Nevertheless, with the availability of a huge...

Biological treatment is a key technology in landfill leachate treatment However, often its efficiency is not high enough due to the pollutants in concentrations above the critical ones. The present study aimed to investigate the adaptive responses that occur in activated sludge (AS) during landfill leachate purification. A model process with AS fro...

The landfill leachate is heavily polluted wastewater produced in the landfills. The management of the purification of the leachate is especially challenging and that is why new approaches and indicators are needed. The quantity, localization, interaction, clustering of the key microbial groups, responsible for the critical transformation processes...

Landfill leachate is generated from the waste degradation in landfill sites and rainwater infiltrates. Its treatment includes more often biological methods combined with physical and chemical methods. The availability of polycyclic aromatic carbohydrates, phenols, polychlorinated phenols, pesticides, heavy metals, and refractory organics in landfil...

The landfill leachate is heavily polluted wastewater produced in the landfills. The management of the purification of the leachate is especially challenging and that is why new approaches and indicators are needed. The quantity, localization, interaction, clustering of the key microbial groups, responsible for the critical transformation processes...

The potential of an express enzymological indicator – phosphatase activity index (PAI) – for assessment of different types of pollution and self-purification potential in running waters was evaluated for three river subcatchments, representative for different ecological situations and impacts. According to the values of correlation coefficients, a...

The identification of contamination level and ecological risks, associated with heavy metal pollution of sediments in small hydropower cascade was done on the base of index analyses approach. The concentration of As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, Zn, total organic carbon and percentage of fines were determined in sediments of two habitats in cascade sequence – r...

Heavy metals are widespread pollutants with significant environment risk due to high toxicity and clear tendency for accumulation in different matrices – soils, sediments, biota. The main research objective of this work is to assess the impact of heavy metal pollution on key structural and functional parameters of microbial communities in sediments...

As mediators in key biotransformation processes, the complex enzyme activities (measured as a total of extracellular and intracellular activity on sub-organism, organism and supra-organism level) have a high potential to be used as reliable indicators for risk identification in co-contaminated sediments with organics and heavy metals. Two enzyme ac...

Iskar River is a highly modifi ed ecosystem in the part Prokopanik-Gabrovnitza from the newly built small Hydroelectric Power Plants (HEPPs) in the “Middle Iskar” cascade. A 12-year monitoring program studies the ecological status of the river and gradually under construction, putting into operation the HEPPs and associated dams. This article cover...

The influence of mercury on the transformation processes in the waters and the sediments in the reservoir of a small hydroelectric power plant (SHPP) Lakatnik was simulated in laboratory conditions. SHPP Lakatnik is the first (of nine similar) SHPPs put into exploitation in the middle part of the Iskar River (Bulgaria). In previous studies of the s...

The Middle Iskar cascade is situated along the middle course of the Iskar River (Bulgaria) after the capital city Sofia and has three small hydroelectric power plants that were put into operation by the end of 2012. The aim of this study was to evaluate the self-purification potential of water in the reservoirs of these plants as an important and n...

In the middle part of Iskar River, the effects of complex pollution with organics and difficult-biodegradable compounds have been observed from decades. Nowadays this part of the river is a subject of intensive hydrotechnical activity for construction of a cascade of 9 mini-hydroelectric power stations and this strongly poses the question of ecolog...

Environmental management requires the solution of problems through a comprehensive and thorough examination of all levels – from biochemical analysis to bio managerial approaches. The chemical and microbiological parameters of water in depth in micro-dams Lakatnik and Svrazhen have been investigated in June and September, 2011. Linear correlations...

The biodegradation of the toxic compound phenol in the sediments from the storage reservoir to HEPP "Lakatnik", situated in the Iskar River was simulated in the laboratory model process. Phenol at a concentration of 200 mg.l-1 was the investigated xenobiotic. The following microbial and chemical indicators characterized the process: the amount of t...

New, ecological friendly and renewable energetic sources look for needs of population in the recent years according to the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21). An example for that in Bulgaria is a project for construction of a cascade from nine small scale hydroelectric power plants (HEPP) in the middle part of Iskar River....

A key factor for realization of the self-purification potential in the hydroecosystems is the functioning of microbial communities. Their flexible metabolism is in the base of the biotransformation processes of the organics and nutrients. The functional diversity can play the role of an indicative mechanism and its adequate elucidation presents an...