Current Opinion in Environmental Science and Health最新文献

This work explores the current status of remote sensing (RS) applications for managing global arsenic (As) pollution in water, impacting health and ecosystems. We detailed the complex, indirect relationship between remote sensing and arsenic contamination detection. Satellite imagery from Landsat, Sentinel, and Hyperion satellites are notably effective in identifying As minerals, providing a proxy for groundwater As pollution. These methods can be further enhanced by integrating GRACE satellite data on groundwater fluctuations, land use maps, and machine learning. Despite these advances in the RS technologies, challenges of data accuracy, interpretations, and ground-truthing are likely to persist. This work also adds to the narrative and the perspective of AI applications in environmental data improvement, diagnostics and prognostics for groundwater, and that further understanding of environmental complexity is needed to boost innovation in mitigating and democratizing As-related challenges.

This study examines the critical role of groundwater in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly focusing on SDG6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and SDG13 (Climate Action). The review elucidates the interconnected challenges faced by groundwater systems, including contamination, climate change, and over-extraction, and underscores innovative solutions, i.e., energy-efficient technologies, aquifer recharge, and sustainable management practices. The study analyses case studies from countries like the United Kingdom, USA, India, Germany, China, Australia, and the Netherlands, with a focus on successful integration of groundwater management into SDG fulfillment strategies. It recommends enhanced groundwater data and modeling, improved governance, participatory management, and the adoption of nature-based solutions to ensure groundwater sustainability. This study contributes to the discourse on water security, emphasising the pivotal role of groundwater in fulfilling global sustainability agendas and fostering resilient communities against climate variability.

While direct effects of biopesticides, such as those of plant and microbial origin, on various organisms have been extensively documented, the interactions between biopesticides and plants have been largely neglected. Plant-based (bio) pesticides can include metabolites that signal stress or imminent herbivore attack, activating plant signaling pathways and gene expression involved in antiherbivore defenses. Similarly, entomopathogenic microbes can adopt an endophytic lifestyle, colonizing or being recognized by crop plants and inducing a primed state that makes plants more resistant to subsequent arthropod pest infestations. Besides effects within the biopesticide-treated plants, we predict that biopesticides can influence multitrophic interactions in the agroecosystem due to their interactions between treated and neighboring nontreated plants, as well as indirect effects from volatile organic compounds released by biopesticides on the plant surface, which arthropod pests and their natural enemies use as cues for finding hosts or food resources. Here we review and interpret empirical studies examining plant-mediated effects and indirect effects of biopesticides on arthropod pests and their entomophagous biological control agents in the context of pest management. Unlike synthetic pesticides, most studies indicate conducive effects of biopesticides for pest management, considering the interactions among plants, pests, and natural enemies. However, further efforts to understand plant-mediated and indirect effects of biopes ticides on interactions with natural enemies and plant–plant communication are needed to optimize their use in sustainable pest management strategies.

Social wasps can be exceptionally invasive in both natural and urban environments, posing significant challenges to biodiversity conservation efforts and human health. On the other hand, they provide a wide variety of ecosystem services unnoticed by most, such as predation of pest species and pollination, and should be included among beneficial insects. As a result, despite the growing interest in the long-term impacts of biological control agents like biopesticides on ecologically important insects, social wasps are either not evaluated as taxa suffering from ecotoxic effects or, in some cases, are the target species themselves. Aside from this dichotomy, experimental evidence of the effects of biopesticides on these insects is scarce. Keeping in mind these two opposite aspects of social wasps, this review analyzed the existing knowledge of the effects of biopesticides on social wasps, highlighting the current knowledge gaps.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a major threat to global public health. Despite substantial efforts and progress, several key questions remain unanswered, especially regarding its spread in environmental settings. Health authorities globally face significant challenges in managing this threat, including the lack of consensus on universal microbial indicators and the need for standardized methods across several stages: from sample collection, storage, and processing to analysis and harmonization of results. Moreover, addressing the complex and multi-sectoral nature of AMR requires a multifaceted response that includes enhanced surveillance, environmental monitoring, standardized methods, and innovative technologies. These efforts are essential to promote the effective implementation of regulations and policies aimed at tackling the risks posed by AMR. This article aims therefore to address the knowledge gap by discussing existing frameworks for detecting AMR in the environment, reviewing current and relevant techniques, and highlighting areas where further research is needed.