Environmental science. Advances最新文献

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Numerous studies have examined the factors influencing public perception of the reuse of treated wastewater and have consistently identified sensitivity to contamination and feelings of repulsion as the most significant barriers to acceptance. However, far fewer studies have examined the positive arguments that can promote the acceptance of reuse of treated wastewater. This study investigates how individuals cognitively respond to media messages on this topic by testing the cognitive resonance of four news-like messages with different framing manipulations (N = 1040 adults). Depending on their framing, these messages elicited more or less negative responses from individuals concerned with pollution and personal health compared to those focused on sustainability and environmental benefits. These findings highlight the importance of tailoring communication strategies to different audience profiles. The recipients' responses also underscore why scientists, particularly chemists, need to adopt communication approaches that may feel counterintuitive to them in order to be persuasive. Based on these findings, this study suggests ways of designing messages that can effectively promote the reuse of treated wastewater among resistant social groups. Finally, broader lessons for environmental communication are drawn.

The consequences of the human-caused increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere are normally discussed mainly in terms of its radiative forcing effect and the consequent global warming and climate change. However, CO₂ is a chemically active molecule in aqueous environments, and it has multiple effects on the biosphere. Increasing CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere increase the acidity of seawater and harm marine organisms. High CO₂ concentrations can make the photosynthetic reaction faster in some plants but also negatively affect the metabolism of aerobic metazoans, with harmful effects on human health. These effects are already important for people living in closed spaces and can only become stronger with the projected future increases in CO₂ atmospheric concentration. The present paper is a critical review of a field that is important for the future of humankind. We find that the chemical and biochemical pollution associated with CO₂ is a serious problem that may turn out to be no less important than that of radiative forcing in terms of damage to human health and to the whole biosphere. These results also indicate that geoengineering techniques based on Solar Radiation Management (SRM) alone cannot be sufficient to counter the ecosystem disruption caused by anthropogenic CO₂ emissions.

In this study, we investigate the PFOA removal capabilities of Rhodopseudomonas palustris (R. palustris), a fluoroacetate dehalogenase containing microbe, as a potential candidate for achieving bioremediation. In the 50-day PFOA uptake experiment, R. palustris removed 44 ± 6.34% PFOA after 20 days of incubation, which was then reduced to a final removal of 6.23 ± 12.75%. Results indicate that PFOA was temporarily incorporated into the cell membrane before being partially released into the media after cell lysis. This incorporation might be attributed to the combined effect of the hydrophobic interaction between PFOA and the cell membrane and the reduced electrostatic repulsion from the high ion concentration in the growth medium. The growth of R. palustris during the PFOA uptake experiment was 45-fold slower than their growth without PFOA. This study also completely defines the toxicity range of PFOA for R. palustris through a toxicity assay. Increasing PFOA concentration reduced microbial growth, with complete inhibition observed at around 200 ppm. An accelerated growth phase was followed by a temporary death phase in the first 24 hours in the presence of 12.5–100 ppm PFOA, implying a unique adaptation mechanism to PFOA.

Microplastics (MPs) are a growing environmental concern due to their persistence in the environment and potential negative impacts on human health and the ecosystem. Their widespread presence across terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric compartments has prompted an urgent need for improved detection techniques and effective degradation strategies. This review provides an integrated overview of recent advancements in the identification and removal of MPs, with a focus on both analytical and remediation technologies. Progress in spectroscopic, thermal, and imaging-based methods has enabled more precise detection, quantification, and characterization of MPs, particularly at the nano-scale. Simultaneously, a variety of degradation strategies have been developed to mitigate the environmental burden of MPs. These are broadly categorized into physical, chemical, and biological approaches. Physical methods include mechanical removal and thermal processes such as pyrolysis and thermal oxidation. Chemical degradation involves advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and photocatalysis using semiconductors like titanium dioxide (TiO₂) to accelerate polymer breakdown under light exposure. Among biological approaches, enzymatic and microbial degradation have shown promising results. Enzymes such as PETase, MHETase, cutinases, lipases, and cellulases catalyze the hydrolysis of ester and amide bonds in synthetic polymers, offering selective and environmentally benign pathways for microplastic decomposition. The review further explores the implications of microplastic accumulation, including bioaccumulation and oxidative stress in organisms, and discusses the limitations and challenges of current technologies. Emphasis is placed on integrating detection with degradation strategies to achieve sustainable, scalable, and interdisciplinary solutions. By highlighting the latest scientific advancements, this review aims to guide future research directions and support the development of effective policy and management frameworks for mitigating microplastic pollution.

Correction for ‘Soil greenhouse gas fluxes in corn systems with varying agricultural practices and pesticide levels’ by Eri Saikawa et al., Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2024, 3, 1760–1774, https://doi.org/10.1039/D4VA00105B.

The WRF-Chem model was applied for gas and aerosol chemistry in Quito, Ecuador, at a high horizontal resolution of 2 km. WRF-Chem was chosen due to its full coupling of meteorological and chemical processes, which is particularly suitable for complex topography and urban-scale simulations. Emission inventories were taken from EDGAR for the outer domains (32 and 8 km horizontal resolution), and local emission estimates were used for the innermost domain (2 km resolution) as initial estimates. The base year of simulation was 2018, and two months were chosen: April and December. WRF-Chem results were tested at five air quality stations across the Quito metropolitan area. To reduce bias between modeled and observed concentrations, Quito 2011 baseline emissions for CO, NO_x, SO₂, and PM_2.5 were adjusted by factors of 1.5, 0.75, 0.30 and 3.0 approximately, resulting in annual emission estimates of 300, 27, 1.5 and 7.5 kilotonnes per year (kton per year) for CO, NO_x (expressed as NO₂ equivalent), SO₂ and PM_2.5, respectively. The model run with these adjusted emissions showed good performance for CO, NO_x, SO₂, and O₃ (r ∼0.4–0.8), but performance was lower for PM_2.5 (r ∼0.4–0.5), particularly in the afternoon. This is ascribed mainly to an underestimation of secondary organic aerosol formation. The impact of biogenic VOC emissions on ozone and PM_2.5 is positive but small (+3–8%), and the inclusion of aerosol radiative feedback is minor (∼−0.5%), because of the relatively small ambient PM_2.5 concentrations in Quito.

Arctic ecosystems are considered to be especially vulnerable to the effects of environmental change, but the combined influence of a warming Arctic and expanding urban development is less clear. While temperature-driven change has long been the principal focus of studies on Arctic lakes, increasing local human populations, inadequate municipal infrastructure, and expansion of the resource extraction industry may now have a larger influence. Here, we present a chironomid-based paleolimnological assessment of two lakes within the urban boundary of Iqaluit, Nunavut, to determine responses to changes in climate over the Anthropocene. Iqaluit is one of the largest urban centers in the Canadian Arctic with a population that has been increasing for decades and a history of pollution that has affected nearby freshwater systems. We observed warming in both lakes, inferred by a reduction of cold-water stenotherms, such as Heterotrissocladius and Corynocera oliveri-type, concurrent with increases in generalist taxa, including Psectrocladius and those of the tribe Tanytarsini. We note that the two lakes had differences in their assemblages related to the specific habitats associated with each; IQ04 is a large kettle lake with a pronounced profundal zone, whereas IQ01 is oblong with a larger shallow littoral reach. We found that both lakes were responsive to climate, both indicating a warming trend that began ∼1985–1990, regardless of the proximity to human activities, and note that it is important that these ecosystems be monitored given continued environmental stress expected with future warming and further urban development.

Despite environmental and social issues, hydropower has been promoted as a climate-friendly form of electricity generation. This perspectives paper shows that such a claim needs to be considered with great care, especially in tropical, low-latitude areas. First, because complete climate impacts are rarely considered. For instance, the frequently cited IPCC (2014) emission intensities omit biogenic CO₂ emissions from reservoirs. The openly available G-res tool provides an opportunity to partly fill this gap. Second, individual cases show huge variability in climate impacts. In this paper, we discuss the results of G-res calculations for three projects in Myanmar, which confirm this large variability. Several international guidelines suggest to use G-res to estimate a hydropower project's climate impact. However, an analysis of the methodology shows that the G-res calculations can substantially underestimate the GHG emissions of hydropower projects due to its limitations and assumptions. Furthermore, the Earth's albedo change by the reservoirs needs to be considered. We show that the impact thereof is of comparable magnitude and variability. As a result, in many cases in the tropics hydropower will have considerably larger climate impacts than solar and wind and can even exceed those of fossil fuel installations.

Large tracts of agricultural land are enriched in toxic trace elements (TTE), particularly cadmium and arsenic. Functionalized mesoporous silica (FMS) is used extensively as an advanced process and waste-stream management tool for TTE removal in the chemical industries. Their adoption in agriculture though is extremely limited, encompassing only a narrow selection of FMS materials and crop/soil types. Understanding the function of FMS in diverse and relevant agri-settings is a priority. Not only in terms of their ability to immobilize TTE, but also in relation to the uncharacterized risks they pose to the soil's supply of essential nutrients, concurrent plant ionome responses and crop performance. Here, a series of plant mesocosm experiments were conducted on seriously degraded soils from zinc smelting operations. Two different crops, Oryza sativa and Brassica rapa with opposing redox managements were studied to understand the mechanisms of the FMS–soil–plant interactions. Companion FMS-incubations were undertaken on urban-industry impacted and mining-accident/“cancer-village” soils, to test performance across a wider range of contamination scenarios. In addition to the multi-functionality of FMS for targeted TTE immobilization along with the chemical inertia for needed plant nutrients, its abilities as a vector for plant growth/soil remediation stimulants was also investigated. Growth/protection enhancers were preloaded on FMS and then trials were performed to characterize their release. The plant mesocosm experiment demonstrated FMS can effectively immobilize ∼36% of the total Cd and ∼37% of the bioavailable Cd in soil into a highly recalcitrant/plant unavailable fraction. This significantly reduced in planta Cd accumulation by >80% across contrasting soil redox scenarios. Bioavailability of Cd and As decreased simultaneously by 98% and 57%, in companion soil incubations. Finally, FMS successfully accumulated and released dosed agri-chemicals in solution-based experiments. These findings establish FMS as a multi-functional soil amendment, offering a novel and integrated solution for complex agricultural soil issues.