Sea cucumbers are dominant invertebrates in several ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass meadows and mangroves. As bioturbators, they have an important ecological role in making available calcium carbonate and nutrients to the rest of the community. However, due to their commercial value, they face overexploitation in the natural environment. On top of that, occurring ocean acidification could impact these organisms, considered sensitive as echinoderms are osmoconformers, high-magnesium calcite producers and have a low metabolism. As a first investigation of the impact of ocean acidification on sea cucumbers, we tested the impact of short-term (6 to 12 days) exposure to ocean acidification (seawater pH 7.7 and 7.4) on two sea cucumbers collected in SW Madagascar, Holothuria scabra, a high commercial value species living in the seagrass meadows, and H. parva, inhabiting the mangroves. The former lives in a habitat with moderate fluctuations of seawater chemistry (driven by day–night differences) while the second lives in a highly variable intertidal environment. In both species, pH of the coelomic fluid was significantly negatively affected by reduced seawater pH, with a pronounced extracellular acidosis in individuals maintained at pH 7.7 and 7.4. This acidosis was due to an increased dissolved inorganic carbon content and pCO₂of the coelomic fluid, indicating a limited diffusion of the CO₂towards the external medium. However, respiration and ammonium excretion rates were not affected. No evidence of accumulation of bicarbonate was observed to buffer the coelomic fluid pH. If this acidosis stays uncompensated for when facing long-term exposure, other processes could be affected in both species, eventually leading to impacts on their ecological role.

Living or formerly living organisms are being used to obtain information on the quality of the general health status of our environment by bioindication and biomonitoring methods for many decades. Thus, different roads toward this common scientific goal were developed by a lot of different international research groups. Global cooperation in between various scientific teams throughout the world has produced common ideas, scientific definitions, and highly innovative results of this extremely attractive working field. The transdisciplinary approach of different and multifaceted scientific areas—starting from biology, analytical chemistry, via health physics, up to social and economic issues—have surpassed mental barriers of individual scientists, so that “production” of straightforward common results related to the influence of material and immaterial environmental factors to the well-being of organisms and human life has now reached the forefront of international thinking. For the further sustainable development of our common scientific “hobby” of bioindication and biomonitoring, highest personal energy has to be given by us, being teachers to our students and to convince strategically decision makers as politicians to invest (financially) into the development of education and research of this innovative technique. Young people have to be intensively convinced on the “meaning” of our scientific doing, e.g., by extended forms of education. One example of multilingual education of students on a global scale and perspective is given here, which we started about 3 years ago.

Exposure to specific metallic compounds can cause severe deleterious modifications in organisms. Fishes are particularly prone to toxic effects from exposure to metallic compounds via their environment. Species that inhabit estuaries or freshwater environments can be chronically affected by persistent exposure to a large number of metallic compounds, particularly those released by industrial activities. In this study, we exposed yellow eels (European eel, Anguilla anguilla) for 28 days to environmentally relevant concentrations of four specific metals; lead (300, 600, and 1,200 μg/l), copper (40, 120, and 360 μg/l), zinc (30, 60, and 120 μg/l) and cadmium (50, 150, and 450 μg/l). The selected endpoints to assess the toxicological effects were neurotransmission (cholinesterasic activity in nervous tissue), antioxidant defense, and phase II metabolism (glutathione-S-transferase [GST] activity, in both gills and liver tissues), and peroxidative damage. The results showed an overall lack of effects on acetylcholinesterase for all tested metals. Lead, copper, and cadmium exposure caused a significant, dose-dependent, increase in GST activity in gill tissue. However, liver GST only significantly increased following zinc exposure. No statistically significant effects were observed for the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances assay, indicating the absence of peroxidative damage. These findings suggest that, despite the occurrence of an oxidative-based response after exposure to lead, copper, and cadmium, this had no consequence in terms of peroxidative membrane damage; furthermore, cholinergic neurotoxicity caused by lead, copper, and cadmium did not occur. The implications of these results are further discussed.

This work reports changes of Cr, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb concentrations in the dissolved fraction, suspended particulate matter and immobilised Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin (Bacillariophyceae), as well as of microalgae specific growth rates, during a 5-month period dredging operation in a contaminated area of the Tagus estuary, Portugal. Trace element concentrations showed broad variations in the dissolved fraction and suspended particulate matter, presumably reflecting rapid exchanges of redox-sensitive elements between water and particles, in conjunction with the dilution effect caused by the tidal excursion. Immobilised cells exposed to dredging environmental conditions showed significantly higher concentrations of Cr, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb than under no dredging conditions. Concomitantly, specific cell growth was significantly lower, suggesting that elements released with dredging affect the microalgae physiology. The results obtained in this in situ work imply that the dissolved fraction and the suspended particulate matter are relatively ineffective indicators of the trace element enhancement during dredging and pointed out immobilised P. tricornutum as a reliable and efficient biomonitoring tool for the assessment of trace element remobilisation.

The paper-making process can produce large amounts of wastewater (WW) with high particulate and dissolved organic loads. Generally, in developed countries, stringent international regulations for environmental protection require pulp and paper mill WW to be treated to reduce the organic load prior to discharge into the receiving environment. This can be achieved by primary and secondary treatments involving both chemical and biological processes. These processes result in complex changes in the nature of the organic material, as some components are mineralised and others are transformed. In this study, changes in the nature of organics through different stages of secondary treatment of pulp and paper mill WW were followed using three advanced characterisation techniques: solid-state¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, pyrolysis-gas chromatography mass spectrometry (py-GCMS) and high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC). Each technique provided a different perspective on the changes that occurred. To compare the different chemical perspectives in terms of the degree of similarity/difference between samples, we employed non-metric multidimensional scaling. Results indicate that NMR and HPSEC provided strongly correlated perspectives, with 86 % of the discrimination between the organic samples common to both techniques. Conversely, py-GCMS was found to provide a unique, and thus complementary, perspective.

The claim that public problems are constructs is now widely recognized as justified and was first established in social problem theory. The high instability of problem definition activities in the case of water pollution coming from agriculture in Brittany demonstrates this particularly well. The objective of this article is to describe ways by which an environmental movement organization (EMO) conceives its activities of public problem construction. Inspired by social movement theory, but aiming at overcoming its weaknesses, the paper seeks to highlight the influence of EMO endogenous meaning production in problem construction processes, a dimension often overlooked even by framing theory. In a bid to support that claim, the paper shows the influence of the affective dimension over the strategic one within the problematization process. Forging a conceptual distinction characterized by a perceived problem and strategic definitions, the paper underlines the fundamental interrelated nature of these two components and consequently emphasizes the reciprocal dependence of the perceived problem over the strategic (either material or cognitive) definitions. Finally, the paper evokes the benefit and impact of this conceptual distinction on the policy-making process. (Résumé d'auteur)

In this study, a rapid and accurate ultra-fast liquid chromatography–tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (UFLC–MS/MS) method coupled with the isotope internal standard dilution technique was established and validated to determine trace dicyandiamide (DCD) in mussels. The sample was extracted by acetonitrile, and chromatographic separations were performed on an Acquity UPLC BEH Amide column by using water–acetonitrile (9:91, v/v) as the mobile phase within 3 min. DCD was determined by using DCD-¹⁵N₄as an internal standard. The results showed that the recoveries were between 96.2 and 103 % with relative standard deviations (RSDs) in the range of 0.6–6.0 %. The limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.05 μg/kg. This method can be applied to the routine analysis for the rapid and sensitive determination of trace DCD in mussels. Overall, the data reiterate the importance of investigating the presence of DCD in marine biological samples, which can act as food quality controls for human health.

In the present work, nanoscale zero-valent iron/activated carbon (NZVI/AC) was investigated as heterogeneous Fenton catalyst in three-dimensional (3D) electrode system for methyl orange (MO) degradation. Some important operating parameters such as cathodic potential, pH, and O₂flow rate were investigated, exhibiting good decolorization. The mineralization of MO was significantly improved by 20–35 % compared to two-dimensional (2D) AC system at the optimum conditions. Although the TOC removal of AC was higher than NZVI/AC due to its good adsorption capacity initially, heterogeneous Fenton catalysis played a more and more important roles in the following test. After eight runs, NZVI/AC still exhibited excellent catalytic properties with low iron leaching. Further, a relatively comprehensive mechanism of NZVI/AC as particle electrodes in 3D system was proposed.

The distribution of ambient air n-alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) associated to particles with aerodynamic diameters lesser than 10 μm (PM₁₀) into six fractions (five stages and a backup filter) was studied for the first time in Algeria. Investigation took place during September of 2007 at an urban and industrial site of Algiers. Size-resolved samples (<0.49, 0.49–0.95, 0.95–1.5, 1.5–3.0, 3.0–7.2, and7.2–10 μm) were concurrently collected at the two sampling sites using five-stage high-volume cascade impactors. Most of n-alkanes (~72 %) and PAHs (~90 %) were associated with fine particles ≤1.5 μm in both urban and industrial atmosphere. In both cases, the n-alkane contents exhibited bimodal or weakly bimodal distribution peaking at the 0.95–1.5-μm size range within the fine mode and at 7.3–10 μm in the coarse mode. Low molecular weight PAHs displayed bimodal patterns peaking at 0.49–0.95 and 7.3–10 μm, while high molecular weight PAHs exhibited mono-modal distribution with maximum in the <0.49-μm fraction. While the mass mean diameter of total n-alkanes in the urban and industrial sites was 0.70 and 0.84 μm, respectively, it did not exceed 0.49 μm for PAHs. Carbon preference index (~1.1), wax% (10.1–12.8), and the diagnostic ratios for PAHs all revealed that vehicular emission was the major source of these organic compounds in PM₁₀during the study periods and that the contribution of epicuticular waxes emitted by terrestrial plants was minor. According to benzo[a]pyrene-equivalent carcinogenic power rates, ca. 90 % of overall PAH toxicity across PM₁₀was found in particles ≤0.95 μm in diameter which could induce adverse health effects to the population living in these areas.

Guangzhou is a metropolitan in south China with unique pollutants and geographic location. Unlike those in western countries and the rest of China, the appearance of haze in Guangzhou is often (about 278 days per year on average of 4 years). Little is known about the influence of these hazes on health. In this study, we investigated whether short-term exposures to haze and air pollution are associated with hospital admissions in Guangzhou. The relationships between haze, air pollution, and daily hospital admissions during 2008–2011 were assessed using generalized additive model. Studies were categorized by gender, age, season, lag, and disease category. In haze episodes, an increase in air pollutant emissions corresponded to 3.46 (95 % CI, 1.67, 5.27) increase in excessive risk (ER) of total hospital admissions at lag 1, 11.42 (95 % CI, 4.32, 18.99) and 11.57 (95 % CI, 4.38, 19.26) increases in ERs of cardiovascular illnesses at lags 2 and 4 days, respectively. As to total hospital admissions, an increase in NO₂was associated with a 0.73 (95 % CI, 0.11, 1.35) and a 0.28 (95 % CI, 0.11, 0.46) increases in ERs at lag 5 and lag 05, respectively. For respiratory illnesses, increases in NO₂was associated with a 1.94 (95 % CI, 0.50, 3.40) increase in ER at lag 0, especially among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Haze (at lag1) and air pollution (for NO₂at lag 5 and for SO₂at lag3) both presented more drastic effects on the 19 to 64 years old and in the females. Together, we demonstrated that haze pollution was associated with total and cardiovascular illnesses. NO₂was the sole pollutant with the largest risk of hospital admissions for total and respiratory diseases in both single- and multi-pollutant models.