Elsevier最新文献

Marine microplastics, categorized as primary and secondary, including synthetic microfibers like polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP) and acrylic (PC), represent a potential environmental concern. The complex classification of these fibers, originating from diverse sources such as textiles and many others commercial goods, prompts a need for understanding their impact on aquatic organisms. This study assesses the ecological risks associated with both natural and synthetic fibers in aquatic ecosystems, focusing on toxicity data and their effects on taxonomic groups like Mollusca, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, Cnidaria, and Chordata. To carry out species sensitivity distribution (SSD) curves, a comprehensive analysis of scientific literature was conducted, collecting toxicity data related to various fibers. The resulting SSDs provide insights into the relative sensitivity of different taxonomic groups. The potential ecological risks were evaluated by comparing measured concentrations in diverse aquatic environments with Predicted No-Effect Concentration (PNEC) values. The calculation of Risk Quotient (RQ) allowed to indicate areas where fibers abundance poses a potential threat to aquatic organisms. The study reveals that nylon fibers can pose the highest toxicity risk, especially in Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, Arabian Gulf and VietNam river. Mollusca emerged as particularly sensitive to different fiber types, likely due to their body structure facilitating the accumulation of microfibers. The research emphasizes the urgent need for further studies to get data to human health risk analysis and to address comprehensive environmental management strategies to address the global issue of microfiber pollution.

Many marine species are distributed across incredibly wide geographical ranges spanning thousands of kilometers often due to movement along prevailing ocean currents. However, data are lacking on genetic connectivity among populations of such widespread species within or among ecoregions, possibly due to the lack of appropriate datasets. In this study, we investigated the genetic structure of populations of the mangrove whelk, Terebralia palustris, using mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences. Sequences generated for this study from Okinawa, Japan, were compared to samples from the coast of East Africa analyzed in a previous study. Interestingly, despite considerable distance separating them, the African and Japanese populations share major haplotypes and do not show clear genetic differentiation. At lower latitudes, core African populations exhibited higher genetic diversity than either the more southerly African and Japanese populations. Genetic β-diversity revealed that the northern edge population in Japan has a greater proportion of β_SNE (the nestedness-resultant component), indicating contemporary migration, whereas the southern edge population in Africa is characterized by a predominant β_SIM (the turnover component), suggesting historical demography. A potential cause of this dissimilarity could be due to the strong Kuroshio Current along the Ryukyu Islands, which may promote larval dispersal. These differing patterns suggest that there may be divergent responses to future climate change at the population level at the periphery of the range of T. palustris.

This study explored the redox-mediated changes in a lead (Pb) contaminated soil (900 mg/kg) due to the addition of solar cell powder (SC) and investigated the impact of biochar derived from soft wood pellet (SWP) and oil seed rape straw (OSR) (5% w/w) on Pb immobilization using an automated biogeochemical microcosm system. The redox potential (Eh) of the untreated (control; SC) and biochar treated soils (SC + SWP and SC + OSR) ranged from -151 mV to +493 mV. In SC, the dissolved Pb concentrations were higher under oxic (up to 2.29 mg L^-1) conditions than reducing (0.13 mg L^-1) conditions. The addition of SWP and OSR to soil immobilized Pb, decreased dissolved concentration, which could be possibly due to the increase of pH, co-precipitation of Pb with FeMn (hydro)oxides and pyromorphite, and complexation with biochar surface functional groups. The ability and efficiency of OSR for Pb immobilization were higher than SWP, owing to the higher pH and density of surface functional groups of OSR than SWP. Biochar enhanced the relative abundance of Proteobacteria irrespective of Eh changes, while the relative abundance of Bacteroidota increased under oxidizing conditions. Overall, we found that both OSR and SWP immobilized Pb in solar panel waste contaminated soil under both oxidizing and reducing redox conditions which may mitigate the potential risk of Pb contamination.

Understanding the disparities in carbon emission trend among cities is critical for achieving carbon peak goal. However, the status and trends of carbon peaking and reduction in various city types are still unclear. Therefore, this study classified 315 Chinese cities according to their economic and industrial structure by SOM-K-means, aiming to evaluate the trends and dynamic drivers of carbon peaking progress in different city types. The findings reveal a decline in carbon emissions in 110 cities (34.9 %) since 2020. Notably, all city types show potential for carbon reduction and achieving carbon peaking. Specifically, resource-based cities and high-end service cities have the most effect on reducing emissions, with 48.4 % and 42.1 % of the cities declining in carbon emissions. Energy-based and heavy industrial cities face heightened pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, in high-end service cities, energy efficiency and investment intensity contribute to emission reduction, while industrial structure adjustment decrease carbon emissions in resource-based cities. Furthermore, enhancing energy efficiency effects and R&D intensity are effective ways to significantly reduce carbon emissions in heavy industrial cities. We conclude that differentiating carbon reduction pathways for different cities should constitute be a breakthrough in achieving the goal of carbon peaking. These insights provide recommendations for cities that have yet to reach their carbon peak for both China and other developing countries.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a persistent compound, raising considerable global apprehension due to its resistance to breakdown and detrimental impacts on human health and aquatic environments. Pressure-driven membrane technologies treating PFAS-contaminated water are expensive and prone to fouling. This study presented a parametric investigation of the effectiveness of cellulose triacetate membrane in the forward osmosis (FO) membrane for removing PFOA from an aqueous solution. The study examined the influence of membrane orientation modes, feed pH, draw solution composition and concentration, and PFOA concentration on the performance of FO. The experimental results demonstrated that PFOA rejection was 99 % with MgCl₂ and slightly >98 % with NaCl draw solutions due to the mechanism of PFOA binding to the membrane surface through Mg²⁺ ions. This finding highlights the crucial role of the draw solution's composition in PFOA treatment. Laboratory results revealed that membrane rejection of PFOA was 99 % at neutral and acidic pH levels but decreased to 95 % in an alkaline solution at pH 9. The decrease in membrane rejection is attributed to the dissociation of the membrane's functional groups, consequently causing pore swelling. The results were confirmed by calculating the average pore radius of the CTA membrane, which increased from 27.94 nm at pH 5 to 30.70 nm at pH 9. Also, variations in the PFOA concentration from 5 to 100 mg/L did not significantly impact the membrane rejection, indicating the process's capability to handle a wide range of PFOA concentrations. When seawater was the draw solution, the FO membrane rejected 99 % of PFOA concentrations ranging from 5 mg/L to 100 mg/L. The CTA FO treating PFOA-contaminated wastewater from soil remediation achieved a 90 % recovery rate and water flux recovery of 96.5 % after cleaning with DI water at 40 °C, followed by osmotic backwash. The results suggest the potential of using abundant and cost-effective natural solutions in the FO process, all without evident membrane fouling.

The expansion of the world's merchant fleet poses a great threat to the ocean's biodiversity. Collisions between ships and marine megafauna can have population-level consequences for vulnerable species. The Endangered whale shark (Rhincodon typus) shares a circumglobal distribution with this expanding fleet and tracking of movement pathways has shown that large vessel collisions pose a major threat to the species. However, it is not yet known whether they are also at risk within aggregation sites, where up to 400 individuals can gather to feed on seasonal bursts of planktonic productivity. These "constellation" sites are of significant ecological, socio-economic and cultural value. Here, through expert elicitation, we gathered information from most known constellation sites for this species across the world (>50 constellations and >13,000 individual whale sharks). We defined the spatial boundaries of these sites and their overlap with shipping traffic. Sites were then ranked based on relative levels of potential collision danger posed to whale sharks in the area. Our results showed that researchers and resource managers may underestimate the threat posed by large ship collisions due to a lack of direct evidence, such as injuries or witness accounts, which are available for other, sub-lethal threat categories. We found that constellations in the Arabian Sea and adjacent waters, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of California, and Southeast and East Asia, had the greatest level of collision threat. We also identified 39 sites where peaks in shipping activity coincided with peak seasonal occurrences of whale sharks, sometimes across several months. Simulated collision mitigation options estimated potentially minimal impact to industry, as most whale shark core habitat areas were small. Given the threat posed by vessel collisions, a coordinated, multi-national approach to mitigation is needed within priority whale shark habitats to ensure collision protection for the species.

The Queensland Shark Control Program (QSCP) started in 1962 to reduce the number of shark-human incidents by deploying nets and drumlines across the most popular beaches. The program targets large shark species (white, tiger and bull sharks) that are potentially hazardous to bathers. However, this strategy is lethal for other sharks and marine wildlife, including threatened and endangered species. Thus, finding non-lethal strategies is a priority. To better manage shark-human interactions, establishing a better understanding of the factors that drive shark movement is key. Here we used sea surface temperature (SST), rainfall and distance to rivers as environmental variables to predict the presence of whaler sharks in southern Queensland based on 26 years of catch data from the QSCP. We found that SST is positively corelated to sharks caught by drumlines, while rainfall was associated with the number of sharks captured in shark nets. In addition, more sharks were captured by nets and drumlines further away from rivers, and nets captured roughly 10 times more sharks than drumlines over the period of study. In contrast to tiger sharks, the catch data indicate the number of whalers has not declined over the past 26 years. Our findings suggest that environmental variables can be used to predict the movement of large sharks and by incorporating this knowledge into management plans and public education programs, may ultimately reduce shark-human incidents.

Input of root litter can alter soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics via causing priming effect (PE) on native SOC decomposition and forming new SOC. However, it is unknown how functional type mediates the root litter-driven PE and new C formation as well as their response to warming, which are of pivotal for soil C budget. We mixed litter segments of absorptive roots and transport roots from a Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) plantation into isotopically distinct soil and incubated at 19°C (local mean annual temperature) and 23°C (warming by 4°C) for 210 days. Cumulative PE was calculated via integrating the instantaneous PE rates during the incubation. And the newly formed root litter-derived SOC (SOC_rl) was calculated by measuring the δ¹³C value of soil at the end of incubation using a two-source mixed model. We found that absorptive roots with faster decomposition rates, caused significantly higher cumulative PE and SOC_rl than transport roots. The microbial biomass and enzyme activities involved in C, N and P acquisition were significantly higher in the absorptive- than the transport roots addition treatment, indicating a higher level of microbial activation caused by absorptive roots. Although warming significantly increased the litter decomposition for both of functional types, while just significantly increased the PE of transport roots, indicating a root functional type dependent sensitivity of PE to warming. However, warming had no significant effect on SOC_rl either for absorptive roots or for transport roots. As a consequence, warming relatively decreased the net SOC balance (difference between PE and SOC_rl) in the transport roots addition treatment. Overall, our study highlights, for the first time, that functional type primarily mediates the response of root litter-driven PE to climate warming but not the new C formation, which may advance our understanding of SOC dynamics in Chinese fir plantation under climate change.

Background: Several meta-analyses assessed the relationship between exposure to PM with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM_2.5) during pregnancy and birth weight (BW), but results were inconsistent and substantial unexplained heterogeneity was reported. We aimed to investigate the above association and to explore sources of heterogeneity across studies.

Methods: We systematically reviewed the current worldwide evidence examining the association between PM_2.5 and BW. The review protocol was registered on the PROSPERO website (CRD42020188996) and followed PRISMA guidelines. We extracted association measures for BW and low birth weight (LBW, BW < 2500 g) from each study to evaluate pooled summary measures and to explore sources of between-study heterogeneity.

Findings: Of the 2677 articles identified, 84 met the inclusion criteria (~42 M births). Our random effects meta-analyses revealed substantial heterogeneity among included studies (I² = 98.4 % and I² = 77.7 %, for BW and LBW respectively). For LBW, the heterogeneity decreased (I² = 59.7 %) after excluding four outlying studies, with a pooled odds ratio 1.07 (95 % confidence interval, CI: 1.05, 1.09) per a 10-μg/m³ increase in mean PM_2.5 exposure over the entire pregnancy. Further subgroup analysis revealed geographic heterogeneity with higher association in Europe (1.34, (1.16, 1.55)) compared to Asia (1.06, (1.03, 1.10)) and US (1.07, (1.04, 1.10)).

Conclusion: The association between PM_2.5 and birth weight varied depending on several factors. The sources of heterogeneity between studies included modifiers such as study region and period. Hence, it is advisable not to pool summary measures of PM_2.5-BW associations and that policy would be informed by local evidence.

Biomass is an important indicator of the ability of tropical forests to deliver ecosystem services, but little attention has been given to belowground biomass and its drivers in human-modified landscapes. Here, we investigated the belowground biomass and nutrient concentration/stocks (C, P, and N) across regenerating forest stands with varying ages (10-76 years old) and old-growth forests in the Caatinga dry forest (northeastern Brazil) in the context of slash-and-burn agriculture. Belowground biomass ranged from 1.89 ± 0.33 Mg ha^-1 to 17.53 ± 2.28 Mg ha^-1 (mean ± SE) across regenerating forest stands and averaged 8.33 ± 1.59 Mg ha^-1, with no differences compared to old-growth stands. However, regenerating stands exhibited a higher root/shoot ratio with biomass concentrated in the superficial soil layer and in large-sized roots, regardless of the successional stage. Root nutrient concentration and stocks were highly variable across forest stands with fine roots supporting a higher concentration of N and P, while regenerating stands supported lower nutrient stocks as compared to old-growth forests. Finally, precipitation and chronic disturbance emerged as the most important drivers of belowground biomass and nutrient concentrations/stocks, while aboveground biomass played a negligible role. Our results indicate that, in human-modified landscapes of tropical dry forests, belowground biomass and nutrients play important roles in ecosystem functions in regenerated forests after slash-and-burn agriculture. Forest resilience and provision of ecosystem services (e.g., nutrient cycling) appear to be very sensitive to increased aridity and exploitation of forest resources.