环境科学与技术最新文献

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is one of the major plasticizer pollutants, and numerous studies have reported the harmful effects of DEHP on human health. However, the effects of urinary DEHP metabolites on the progression of bladder cancer remain unclear. Here, we aimed to identify the representative chemical and explore its effect and mechanism on bladder cancer progression with epidemiological and experimental methods based on the adverse outcome pathway (AOP). The quantile-based g-computation (QGC) model showed a positive association between urinary plasticizer metabolites and bladder cancer risks in older men (NHANES 2005-2018), with mono(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate (MEOHP, the secondary-metabolite of DEHP) identified as a main driver factor. We treated human bladder cancer cells with MEOHP at environmentally relevant concentrations (10, 100, and 1000 nM) and found that 100 nM MEOHP exposure activated a hybrid EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition) phenotype. Mechanically, we confirmed that the environmental dose of MEOHP increased nuclear transposition of YAP and β-catenin (molecular initiating event, MIE), thereby sustaining the hybrid EMT phenotype of bladder cancer cells through a series of key events. Our study first investigated the effects of plasticizer secondary metabolite on bladder cancer progression, highlighting the potential damage to urinary system health caused by the metabolites of environmental chemicals and providing a new perspective for the toxicity assessment of pollutants in the future.

The desire to protect aquatic ecosystems and drinking water supplies from the adverse effects of nutrients, trace organic contaminants, and other constituents in municipal wastewater has led to a need for additional treatment, particularly in watersheds with insufficient dilution. Constructed wetlands have emerged as viable alternatives to advanced wastewater treatment processes for effluent polishing due to their low cost and ancillary benefits. Starting in the late 1980s, experiences gained from several decades of operating wetlands in small communities increased confidence that these nature-based treatment systems could be effective and reliable. As a result, investments were made in larger constructed wetlands, with surface areas greater than a million square meters (1 Mm²) and flows often exceeding 1 m³ s^-1, on effluent-dominated rivers and as part of potable water reuse projects. More recently, new wetland designs have improved the constructed wetland system performance by taking advantage of sunlight-mediated processes in the water column and microbial processes on subsurface porous media. Research that provides additional insight into contaminant removal mechanisms, demonstrates long-term viability, and further improves treatment performance could expand the application of constructed wetlands to other difficult-to-solve water quality challenges, including the treatment of municipal water reuse concentrate and the mitigation of nonpoint source pollution.

Achieving sustainability under accelerating climate and socioeconomic pressures requires moving beyond siloed sectoral management toward a system-thinking approach. The water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus offers a holistic lens, yet most applications remain conceptual, short-term, or treat ecosystems as external constraints. This study operationalizes the WEFE Nexus by embedding ecosystems as a coequal, quantified pillar through a hydrologic-regime-based method, since streamflow is a master variable shaping riverine ecosystem health. Long-term foresight is incorporated via dynamically downscaled climate projections and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways within a coupled water and energy systems (WEAP-LEAP) model. Applied to the semiarid Sakarya Basin in Türkiye, the framework evaluates three future periods (2020-2030, 2055-2065, and 2090-2100) across seven subbasins. Results show systemic trade-offs: municipal water security remains high (>90%), but ecosystem integrity and renewable energy goals are consistently compromised. Overall, WEFE Nexus Index values (0.53-0.86) show significant spatial disparities, with arid upstream regions consistently underperforming. Strikingly, SSP2 (business-as-usual) and SSP5 (fossil-fueled growth) yield nearly identical outcomes, underscoring the systemic unsustainability of current trajectories. This framework advances nexus assessment from theory to practice by integrating reproducible metrics, scenario planning, and spatial modeling, creating a practical tool for developing adaptive and resilient sustainability strategies.

Improving carbon productivity is essential for simultaneously achieving sustainable development goals and tackling climate change. While the Global Value Chains (GVCs) division enhances productive efficiency, its impact on carbon productivity remains elusive. Here we integrated the GVCs theory with the Environmental Expanded Input-output model to investigate the highly globalized automotive manufacturing industry. We found that CO₂ emissions intensity, the inverse of carbon productivity, fluctuated between 0.37 and 0.47 kg/USD in automotive manufacturing GVCs during 2001-2021. Notably, developing economies nearly doubled their CO₂ emissions intensity during this period, whereas developed economies almost halved theirs. The global distribution of CO₂ emissions and value added is becoming increasingly unequal in industrial production and service segments. Lower production levels and energy efficiency in developing economies, coupled with their upstream roles in GVCs (raw materials and industrial parts suppliers), exacerbate these disparities. Our findings indicate that merely global labor division is insufficient to create low-carbon automotive manufacturing GVCs. Formulating emission reduction targets that consider the diverse roles of economies within GVCs, and supporting developing economies in boosting energy productivity, labor value added efficiency, and skill can help narrow the distribution gaps and enhance the carbon productivity of the entire automotive manufacturing GVCs.

The acceleration of industrialization has driven the increased emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), posing significant threats to both the ecological environment and public health. The deficiency of reactive oxygen species fundamentally restricts the low-temperature catalytic toluene combustion in transition-metal oxide catalysts. Herein, we report a strategy for intelligently designing active Cu⁺-O_v-Ti ensembles by coupling isolated Cu with adjacent oxygen vacancy, which can synergistically activate chemisorbed O₂ into reactive superoxide species (O₂^-). The defective Cu/TiO_2-x catalyst exhibited remarkable catalytic performance for toluene oxidation, achieving a T₉₀ of 225 °C, significantly 100 °C lower than that of the pristine Cu/TiO₂ catalyst. The low coordination geometry and electron transfer within Cu⁺-O_v-Ti ensembles synergistically activated O₂ to form the Cu-(O-O)_ad-Ti bridged superoxide O₂^- intermediate with an elongated O═O bond. In addition, the distinctive Cu-(O-O)_ad-Ti bridging structure with localized electrons facilitated the chemisorbed O₂ dissociation into electrophilic monatomic O^- species, which subsequently nucleophilically attack the methyl C-H of toluene. These benzyl alcohol-derived Ph-CH₂-O^- intermediates can be readily and flexibly converted into reactive benzaldehyde and benzoic acid species, which were available for subsequent aromatic ring-opening reactions. This study not only advances mechanistic insights into the Cu⁺-O_v-Ti ensembles and electrophilic O^- species in toluene catalytic oxidation but also establishes a design Cu⁺-O_v-Ti principle for engineering efficient VOC elimination catalysts.

Forestation and renewable energy sources are both critical tools for climate mitigation and human sustainable development. However, climate feedback from forestation, such as changes in wind speed and downwelling shortwave radiation following forestation driven by modified land-atmosphere heat, momentum, and moisture exchanges, could potentially compromise the availability of weather-dependent renewable energy. Here, based on coupled land-atmosphere simulations with contrasting forest distributions, our results showed that, in idealized forestation scenarios, pixels of forestation remaining suitable for renewable energy deployment are projected to experience a 27.8 ± 1.1% decline in wind energy potential and a 1.9 ± 0.1% reduction in solar energy potential. For the future emission scenario of SSP1-2.6, which is compatible with the goal of the Paris Agreement that limits global warming below 2 °C, forestation-driven reduction (-9.5 ± 1.9%) in wind energy potential for current onshore wind installations can even surpass that caused by climate change (-2.1 ± 1.5%). In contrast, solar energy change for current onshore solar installations in the SSP1-2.6 scenario is projected to be dominated by climate-driven increases (+3.9 ± 0.7%) rather than forestation-induced change (+0.3 ± 0.2%). Our study highlights the need to account for the trade-off between forestation-based carbon removal and renewable-based emission reduction when formulating climate mitigation pathways.

Most microplastics (MPs) in wastewater are retained within the sewage sludge. These MPs enter the soil environment through land application, posing a threat to ecosystems. This study proposes an effective control strategy using alkali pretreatment (pH 10, 5 days) followed by hydrothermal treatment at 180 °C (AHT), achieving a degradation rate of 81.83% for polyethylene terephthalate MPs (PET-MPs) in sludge. AHT promotes the formation and solubilization of key active components in sludge, such as alkalinity, which drives nucleophilic attack, metal ions, which catalyze reactions, and organic matter, which acts as radical donors. These components synergistically disintegrate PET-MPs through hydrolysis and radical oxidation pathways during hydrothermal treatment. Meanwhile, hydrothermal treatment induces polymer chain motion and physical structural disruption, accelerating the penetration and reaction of active components, thereby achieving efficient degradation of PET-MPs. Spectral and high-resolution mass spectrometry analyses reveal that sludge AHT facilitates the transformation of MP-derived dissolved organic matter (MP-DOM) into molecules characterized by low-aromaticity, low-molecular-weight, high-saturation, and high-bioavailability. Concurrently, MP-DOM exhibits low acute toxicity toward aquatic organisms and the immortalized human liver cell line (THLE-2 cells). Therefore, sludge AHT effectively degrades and converts polyester MPs into MP-DOM with low-toxicity, thereby mitigating the risks of sludge-based MPs to ecosystems.

Accelerating the low-carbon transition of an urban centralized heating system is a key concern for policymakers. We propose a novel equilibrium analysis framework to assess the feasibility of implementing ETS in China's central heating sector. The results demonstrate that implementing an emission trading scheme (ETS) within the central heating sector can accelerate decarbonization process by shifting the focus of the current Clean Heating Campaign from gas boilers to industrial surplus heat and geothermal energy, aligning with China's goal of reaching 25% nonfossil energy by 2030. It can provide a more cost-effective and sustainable decarbonization pathway in which a 1% annual reduction in carbon quotas leads to emissions peak at 2033, as well as it is expected to generate significant co-benefits by reducing heating-related air pollution. A well-designed subsidy reallocation and phase-out strategy can enable the ETS to drive decarbonization and alleviate fiscal pressures. This combination of ETS and subsidies ensures a smooth transition to low-carbon heating in the short term and is sustainable in the long run through endogenous technological advancement and market self-regulation.

The presence and spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) across various habitats have increased the risks of antibiotic resistance, highlighting the urgent need for effective monitoring methods. One key challenge in method development lies in balancing sensitivity, speed, and portability. To address it, a one-step assay targeting the carbapenem resistance gene bla_NDM was developed based on recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) combined with CRISPR/Cas12a. A sensitivity optimization paradigm─MOSAIC (multistrategy optimized sensitive assay via integrated CRISPR/Cas12a)─was proposed, incorporating component optimization, suboptimal-PAM-mediated CRISPR inhibition, and glycerol-assisted phase separation. The glycerol-assisted strategy exhibited the largest enhancement, followed by the suboptimal-PAM strategy and component optimization. When combined, these strategies demonstrated a synergistic effect, yielding greater improvement (10 000-fold) than a single strategy alone. MOSAIC reached a limit of detection (LOD) of 260 copies/μL, comparable to that of qPCR, and enabled faster quantification of bla_NDM at 37 °C within 1 h on a standard plate reader. It achieved 100% diagnostic sensitivity and 95.45% specificity in clinical isolates, and 77.41-99.73% accuracy in environmental matrix-spiked samples, comparable to that of qPCR. It provides a technological foundation for on-site detection of bla_NDM and offers an optimization paradigm and new insights for the development of one-step RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a assays targeting various genes.