Environmental Research最新文献

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) stands as China's foremost region in air pollution control. Shenzhen, as a model city, was selected to quantify the health-economic gains brought about by pollution control efforts. The paper showcased the exemplary practices of GBA in safeguarding the blue sky, providing a template for other regions. We assessed the variation of health impacts and economic burdens in Shenzhen from 2014 to 2022 using the proportional hazards model based on Poisson regression, along with the value of a statistical life, the cost of illness, and the willingness-to-pay approach. The results showed that only the premature mortality and economic burdens attributable to PM_2.5 exhibited improvement prior to the COVID-19, with a total reduction of 9846.65 (95%Cl: 9846.65-9846.65) premature deaths and a cost saving of63.93 (95%Cl: 63.93-63.93) million dollars. Short-term public health policies may affect the outcomes of air quality management, most types of health impacts and economic burdens showed a cliff decline during the pandemic. In addition, the study revealed that cardiovascular health economic burdens outweighed respiratory ones at the premature mortality level, while the opposite scenario was observed at the hospitalization level. This paper advocated for the strengthening of pollution control efforts, especially focusing on industrial emission reduction and intelligent transportation. The theoretical study of O₃ and the synergistic management of O₃ and PM_2.5 should be advanced. Additionally, health education should be emphasized, and residents should be encouraged to cultivate personal hygiene habits.

Background: Children face various challenges in their home and extended neighborhood settings. In this study, we examine the impact of the built and social environments on sleep/mental health and the potential mediating role of environmental perceptions, self-regulation, and coping with noise.

Methods: Cross-sectional data for 1251 schoolchildren (8-12 years) were sampled in the Tyrol region of Austria/Italy. Questionnaires provided information on sociodemographic and housing factors, perceived neighborhood quality, coping with noise during home-work, self-regulation, sleep, and mental health problems. A built environment score was based on modeled levels of road and rail traffic noise, nitrogen dioxide, and imperviousness density. Home garden represented availability of accessible greenspace. Associations between predictors and mental health/sleep problems were examined using quantile regressions and structural equation modeling (SEM).

Results: In multivariate regressions, poor neighborhood quality, poor self-regulation, low traffic safety, and higher coping efforts were associated with more mental health and sleep problems. Good family relations acted in the opposite direction. In SEM, the built environment score was associated with lower neighborhood quality and lower traffic safety, which in turn led to higher coping efforts, and then to mental health/sleep problems. Home gardens related to less sleep problems through higher perceived neighborhood quality and lower coping efforts. Good family relations were associated with better mental health/sleep directly and via better self-regulation and lower coping efforts.

Conclusions: Children forced to engage in coping activities when disturbed by noise during homework show poorer mental health. Good family relations, good neighborhood quality, and close-by greenspace may be factors to alleviate built environment stressors. The negative association of required coping with noise during homework suggests that children, in contrast to adults, may be limited in their coping abilities. Our findings call for further inquiries, as children and their environments may vary with respect to coping efficiently.

Anthropogenic activities have substantial impacts on river ecosystems, yet how phytoplankton taxa and functional groups respond to varying levels of anthropogenic activity in urban rivers remains poorly understood. Herein, we investigated the sensitivity of phytoplankton taxa and functional groups to anthropogenic disturbances in the Bahe River, which experiences increased anthropogenic activity intensity from upstream to downstream. We found that both phytoplankton composition and niche breadth exhibited distinct variations among the three reaches with different anthropogenic disturbances. Notably, we observed a marked increase in the abundance of potential bloom-forming species in the river section with the highest anthropogenic disturbance, suggesting that anthropogenic activities might promote the growth and proliferation of these species. Compared to geographical and physiochemical factors, anthropogenic activities were identified as the primary driver of changes in phytoplankton taxa and functional groups. Increasing levels of anthropogenic activities potentially led to higher concentrations of ammonium nitrogen and total phosphorus, further influencing niche differentiation among phytoplankton taxa and functional groups. Our study offers profound insights into the impacts of anthropogenic disturbances on phytoplankton, emphasizing the necessity of integrating watershed-scale human activity management into strategies for controlling phytoplankton in urban rivers.

The surface acidity and electron transfer performance of manganese oxide catalysts significantly affected its performance of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation. In this work, Mn₂O₃ catalyst was prepared by the precipitation method. The C-hybridization Mn₂O₃-D (Mn₂O₃-D) catalyst prepared with disodium oxalate as a precipitant had more Mn³⁺ and Lewis acid sites on the surface, promoting the binding of PMS on the catalyst surface, which exhibited the best performance in inducing PMS activation to degrade bisphenol A (BPA). Quenching experiments and in situ electron spin resonance (ESR) results indicated that radicals and singlet oxygen were not the main reactive oxygen species (ROSs) in the advanced oxidation process. The chemical probe experiment of phenylmethylsulfone (PMSO) showed that the ≡Mn-OOSO₃^- metastable intermediate formed by the binding of PMS with Mn sites on the catalyst surface was important active species for contaminants degradation. Contaminants combined with intermediates on the catalyst surface to form the electron transfer channels, which were directly degraded through oxygen-atom-transfer pathway and single-electron-transfer pathway. And the hybridization of C promoted the electron transfer during this process. This work further elucidated the reaction mechanism of PMS activation by manganese oxides, and proposed new ideas for the design of MnO_x catalysts for efficient activation of PMS.

Electronic waste dismantling has induced the surrounding agricultural soils suffered from combined contamination of heavy metals and organic pollutants. Lower efficiency and complex mechanisms of bioremediation remain to be resolved. Here, we adopted regulations to Sedum plumbizincicola cross aboveground and belowground scales to strengthen the bioremediation efficiency. Results showed that the S. plumbizincicola intercropping with the Astragalus sinicus L. that inoculated with Rhizobium had the highest performance in reduction of Cd, PBDEs and PCBs from soils by 0.11 mg/kg, 67.93 μg/kg and 38.91 μg/kg, respectively. Rhizosphere soil metabolomics analysis demonstrated that reductions in Cd and PBDEs significantly associated with 2-Methylhippuric acid and L-Saccharopine, which were involved in phenylalanine metabolism, biosynthesis of amino acids and lysine. Metagenomic analysis revealed that these functional pathways were mediated by Frankia, Mycobacterium, Blastococcus, etc. microbial taxa, which were also significantly altered by regulations. Moreover, regulation regimes significantly affected transcription genes of S. plumbizincicola. Functional annotation revealed that cross-scale regulations significantly improve bioremediation efficiency through microorganisms and metabolites in the rhizosphere and transcription genes of S. plumbizincicola, which were illustrated to promote plant growth and tolerance to environmental stress. Our integration of multi-omics provides comprehensive and deep insights into molecular mechanisms in the cross-scale regulations of S. plumbizincicola, which would favor remediation techniques advances for the soil contaminated by electronic waste dismantling.

An appropriate green technology innovation and industrial structural adjustment can facilitate the transition to a greener industrial economy under the Sustainable Development Goals framework. The collaborative management of industrial pollution reduction (IPR) and industrial carbon dioxide emissions reduction (ICR) in the industrial green transformation (IGT) is increasingly drawing attention internationally. Using panel data from 2008 to 2021 for provincial industrial sectors in China, this study uses a structural equation model to empirically investigate how green technologies influence IGT and its sub-goals (including IPR and ICR) through industrial restructuring approaches. The results show that industrial green development have achieved significant results in the study period. Green technologies can achieve green development by inducing changes in industrial structure. As opposed to rationalizing industrial structure, the key to fostering sustainable industrial green transformation is to stimulate the upgrading of the industrial sector structure (UISS) through green technologies. After sorting out all the mediating mechanisms, green process (GTI1) or green product innovation (GTI2), by triggering UISS, is the key to achieving the collaborative management of IPR and ICR and can provide the impetus for the long-term intensification and greening of the industrial sector. In addition, the transmission paths of green technologies affecting IGT, IPR, and ICR are spatially heterogeneous. Our empirical findings can help local governments and policymakers in developing nations construct energy strategies and lessen regional variations in sustainable environmental development.

Metal-tolerant microbes with plant growth-promoting traits represent a promising biological amendment for enhancing the phytostabilization of contaminated soils. However, the relationship between phytostabilization efficiency and microbial consortium composition and diversity remains unclear. This study selected three cadmium (Cd) resistant plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) from Bacillus, Pseudomonas, and Rhodopseudomonas were selected as candidates for biochar-based microbial inoculants. In our pot experiment with single, dual, and triple inoculations, a more diverse microbial consortium significantly increased root Cd accumulation and aboveground biomass. Triple inoculation boosted root Cd accumulation by 56.4 % to 121.5 % and belowground biomass by 4.8 % to 46.2 %, compared to dual and single inoculations. However, this trend was not observed in the aboveground parts of the plants, resulting in a decrease in the translocation factor of Cd in ryegrass. Microbial inoculation altered the structure of the rhizosphere bacterial community, especially the triple microbial inoculation treatment, which showed significant differences compared to the other treatment groups. However, there were no significant changes in alpha diversity. Increased soil pH and its positive interaction with soil enzymes significantly contributed to the phytostabilization efficiency of biochar-based microbial inoculation, whereas the contribution of rhizosphere bacterial communities was much less significant. In summary, metal-tolerant PGPB inoculation can promote phytostabilization efficiency and enhance metal immobilization in soil, reducing their threat to organisms and the environment.

Wildfires adversely impact air quality and public health worldwide. Exposures to wildfire smoke are linked to adverse health outcomes, including cardiopulmonary diseases. Critical research gaps remain surrounding the underlying biological pathways leading to wildfire-induced health effects. The regulation of intercellular communication and downstream toxicity driven by extracellular vesicles (EVs) is an important, understudied biological mechanism. This study investigated EVs following a wildfire smoke-relevant in vitro exposure. We hypothesized that woodsmoke (WS) would alter the proteomic content of EVs secreted in organotypic in vitro airway models. Exposures were carried out using a tri-culture model of alveolar epithelial cells, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells and a simplified co-culture model of alveolar epithelial cells and fibroblasts to inform responses across different cell populations. Epithelial cells were exposed to WS condensate and EVs were isolated from basolateral conditioned medium following 24 h exposure. WS exposure did not influence EV particle characteristics, and it moderately increased EV count. Exposure caused the differential loading of 25 and 35 proteins within EVs collected from the tri- and co-culture model, respectively. EV proteins involved in extracellular matrix degradation and wound healing were consistently modulated across both models. However, distinct proteins involved in the wound healing pathway were altered between models, suggesting unique but concerted efforts across cell types to communicate in response to injury. These findings demonstrate that a wildfire-relevant exposure alters the EV proteome and suggest an impact on EV-mediated intercellular communication. Overall, results demonstrate the viability of organotypic approaches in evaluating EVs to investigate exposure-induced biomarkers and underlying mechanisms. Findings also highlight the impact of differences in the biological complexity of in vitro models used to evaluate the effects of inhaled toxicants.

The relevance of recovery centers and head-starting programs for rescue, rehabilitation, rearing, and conservation of sea turtles is recognized worldwide. In addition, these centers contribute to generating biochemical and physiological data needed to identify health markers and provide baseline values. Because of the marine ecosystems' deterioration, biomarker identification is a global priority for sea turtle conservation; nevertheless, information on specific endpoints, such as neurotoxicity and mutagenesis, is still limited in sea turtles. This study aimed to contrast a set of non-invasive blood biomarkers with ecotoxicological and clinical applications in confined green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) compared with free-living ones from the Mexican Caribbean. Additionally, interspecific (green, hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtles) differences were also evaluated. Plasmatic organochlorine pesticides (OCs) and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) were also determined. The concentration ranges of uric acid, total proteins, lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides), and thyroxine of both confined and free-living green turtles fell outside the reference intervals for the species. Additionally, confined green turtles had the highest number of erythrocytic nuclear abnormalities (ENA) and elevated levels of hemoglobin, lipid peroxidation, and activity of glutathione S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase, and carboxylesterase (CE). Contrasts among confined species identified hawksbill turtles with the lowest glutathione reductase activity, green turtles with the lowest ENA frequency and CE activity, and loggerhead turtles with the highest plasmatic concentrations of PCBs and OCs. The information here provided can be used as information in health monitoring programs and for conservation and management policies at regional, national, and international level.

Thiosulfate-driven denitrification coupled with anammox (TDDA) has garnered interest for its efficient and innovative nitrogen removal capabilities. However, the intricate dynamics of the internal microbial community and the specific characteristics of anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AnAOB) remain incompletely understood. This study combines experimental methods with density functional theory (DFT) calculations to address these gaps. The TDDA reactor was successfully started-up with an optimal S₂O₃^2--S/NO₃^--N ratio of 0.6, achieving a nitrogen removal efficiency of 89.6%. Throughout this process, the relative abundance of Candidatus Kuenenia decreased by 10.2%, while the relative abundance of Candidatus Brocadia increased by 9.6%. The elevated concentration of NO₃^--N inhibited Candidatus Kuenenia, and simultaneously stimulated the secretion of extracellular polymers, affecting Fe uptake by Candidatus Kuenenia. To further elucidate substrate competition, molecular docking simulations and DFT calculations were employed. The binding energy, compared with the electrostatic potential energy of the protein pocket, clearly demonstrated that Nir in AnAOB has a higher affinity for the substrate (E_AnAOB = -163.2 kJ/mol vs. E_SOB = -77.7 kJ/mol). By integrating molecular dynamics insights, this study overcomes experimental limitations and deepens the understanding of the mechanisms within the TDDA system.