The mobility (fractionation) of rare earth elements (REEs) and their possible impacts on ecosystems are still relatively unknown. Soil samples were collected from two sites in central Serbia, an unpolluted mountain region (site 1) and a forest near a city (site 2). In order to investigate REE fractions (acid-soluble/exchangeable, reducible, oxidizable, and residual) in soils, BCR sequential extraction was performed. Additionally, the content of REEs was also determined in stipes and caps of the mushroom Macrolepiota procera, growing in the observed sites. Sc, Y, and lanthanide contents were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and results were subjected to multivariate data analysis. Application of pattern recognition technique revealed the existence of two distinguished clusters belonging to different geographical sites and determined by greater levels of Sc, Y, and lanthanides in Goč soil compared to Trstenik soil. Additionally, PCA analysis showed that REEs in soil were concentrated in two groups: the first consisted of elements belonging to light REEs and the second contained heavy REEs. These results suggest that the distribution of REEs in soils could indicate the geographical origin and type of soil. The bioconcentration factors and translocation factors for each REE were also calculated. This study provides baseline data on the rare earth element levels in the wild edible mushroom M. procera, growing in Serbia. In terms of bioconcentration and bioexclusion concept, Sc, Y, and REEs were bioexcluded in M. procera for both studied sites.

Residential coal combustion is one of the main sources of ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Updating its emission estimation is limited by the shortages of emission factors, especially for them in different particle sizes and from different combustion conditions. PAH emission factors (EFs) for nine size-segregated particle segments emitted from smoldering and flaming combustion of residential coals (four kinds of raw coals (RCs) and three kinds of honeycomb coal briquettes (HCBs)) were obtained in China, using a dilution sampling system. EFs of PAHs for the flaming and smoldering of HCB ranged from 1.32 to 2.04 mg kg⁻¹ and 0.35 to 5.36 mg kg⁻¹, respectively. The EFs of PAHs for RC flaming combustion varied from 0.50 to 218.96 mg kg⁻¹. About 53.5–96.4% and 47.4–90.9% of PAHs concentrated in PM₂.₁ and PM₁.₁, respectively. Different fuel types and combustion conditions strongly affected the PAH EFs. The PAH EF for the RC was 0.3 times that for HCB in Guizhou, which implied that PAH EFs for RC combustion were not always higher than those from HCB burning. For different combustion conditions, the PAH EFs from flaming were more than 2.5 times higher than those from smoldering for HCB except in the Anhui region. Results indicated that current PAH EFs may not be universal, which may bias the establishment of control policies for toxic pollutants emitted from domestic coal burning. On average, 73.2 ± 15.5% of total PAH potential toxicity risks were concentrated in submicron particles. More size-segregated PAH EFs for residential coal combustion should be investigated considering combustion conditions with a uniform sampling method in China.

The aim of this study was to assess the acute health effects of individual ozone (O₃) exposure on the respiratory system in the elderly. A total of 40 non-smoking elderly volunteers completed personal 24 h of measurement for O₃ and fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅). To assess health effects, we measured the pulmonary function and five inflammatory biomarkers in exhaled breath condensate (EBC), including interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂), and tumor necrosis factor α/β (TNFα/β). We used the generalized additive model to analyze the association between O₃ and these health effects, after adjusting PM₂.₅, BMI, and sex as confounders. As a result, we found a negative correlation between O₃ and forced vital capacity (FVC) or forced expiratory volume-one second (FEV1). With the increasing of O₃ by 10 μg/m³, FVC and FEV1 decreased by 0.13 L (95% CI 0.01, 0.26) and 0.11 L (95% CI 0.02, 0.20), respectively. We found no statistical significance between O₃ and biomarkers in EBC. The results suggested that individual 24-h O₃ exposure was associated with decreased pulmonary function in the elderly.

In the present study, the influence of cadmium, copper, and lead on two enzymes often used as biomarkers in toxicological analysis was investigated. Bees were fed with 1 M sucrose solution containing 10-fold serial dilutions of CuCl₂ (1000 mg L⁻¹, 100 mg L⁻¹, and 10 mg L⁻¹), CdCl₂ (0.1 mg L⁻¹, 0.01 mg L⁻¹, and 0.001 mg L⁻¹), or PbCl₂ (10 mg L⁻¹, 1 mg L⁻¹, and 0.1 mg L⁻¹) during 48 h. Our results showed that the total glutathione S-transferase activity was not changed under the influence of cadmium and lead, and it was decreased with the highest concentration of copper. The level of gene expression of the three analyzed classes of glutathione S-transferase was significantly increased with increasing concentrations of copper and cadmium. Lead did not cause significant changes in glutathione S-transferase activity and gene expression, while it showed biphasic effect on acetylcholinesterase activity: lower concentration of lead, 0.1 mg L⁻¹ inhibited and higher dose, 10 mg L⁻¹ induced acetylcholinesterase activity in honey bees. Furthermore, our results showed a significant decrease of the acetylcholinesterase activity in honey bees treated with 0.001 and 0.01 mg L⁻¹ CdCl₂. Our results indicate the influence of cadmium, copper, and lead on GST and AChE in the honey bees. These results form the basis for future research on the impact of metallic trace element pollution on honey bees.

Ecological indicators have widespread appeal to scientists, environmental managers, and the general public. Remote sensing is unique in its capability to record variety of spatio-temporal information on land surface with complete coverage, especially with regard to larger spatial scales, which has been proven to be an effective data source to create indicators to rapidly identify regional eco-environment. In this paper, a new index, remote sensing based ecological index (RSEI) based on the pressure-state-response (PSR) framework, was applied to assess regional ecological changes in Fuzhou City of Fujian Province, southeastern China, using Landsat ETM+/OLI/TIRS images. Taking the advantages of being totally free of artificial interference in the calculation using principal components analysis (PCA) to assign weights of each variable, the RSEI can assess the regional ecological status more objectively and easily. The effectivity of the new index was validated by four approaches, including point-based, classification-based, correlation-based, and urban-rural-gradient-based comparisons. The case study showed that Fuzhou has witnessed ecological improvement during the study period, with the value of RSEI increasing from 0.663 in 2000 to 0.675 in 2016. Spatial variation analysis showed that the poor level of RSEI distributed mostly in the central urban areas, and the ecological degradation was attributed to the fast expansion of the built-up area, characterized by increasing greatly in the value of the normalized differential built up and soil index (NDBSI) in such areas.

Small-scale vegetable and fruit crop producers in the USA use locally available commercial organic fertilizers and soil amendments recycled from municipal and agricultural wastes. Organic soil amendments provide crops with their nutrient needs and maintain soil health by modifying its physical, chemical, and biological properties. However, organic soil amendments might add unwanted elements such as toxic heavy metals or salts, which might inhibit crop growth and reduce yield. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate phytotoxicity of three commercial organic amendments, chicken manure, milorganite, and dairy manure, to collard greens using the seed germination bioassay and chemical analysis of the organic amendments. The seed germination bioassay was conducted by incubating collard greens seeds to germinate in 1:10 (w/v) organic amendment aqueous extracts. Results of this work identified phytotoxic effects of chicken manure and milorganite, but not dairy manure, to collard greens. Potentially phytotoxic chemicals such as copper, zinc, nickel, and salts were also higher in chicken manure and milorganite compared to dairy manure. In particular, nickel in chicken manure and milorganite aqueous extracts was 28-fold and 21-fold, respectively, higher than previously reported toxic levels to wheat seedlings. The results demonstrate the need for more research on phytotoxicity of commercial organic soil amendments to ensure their safe use in vegetable and fruit crop production systems.

Nitrosamines (NAms) are potent genotoxic and carcinogenic but widely detected in drinking water. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence of major types of NAms in drinking water in Shaoxing, China, and to conduct multi-pathway probabilistic cancer risk (CR) assessment to residents based on age-dependent adjustment Chinese exposure factors. Results showed that concentrations of NAms in water varied from not detected (ND) to dozens of nanograms per liter level. N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) was detected most frequently (93.06%), followed by N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) (64.08%)—with the highest cancer risk among NAms. The CR of NAms came mainly through the oral exposure pathway. The 95th percentile of the total CR of five major NAms was 1.06 × 10⁻⁴, exceeding the maximum acceptable lifetime CR (1 × 10⁻⁴) recommended by US EPA. Exposure to NDEA contributed the highest to the total CR. The CR of the five NAms through ingestion was 2.5 times higher using the Chinese exposure factors than that of the Americans. The most important variables related to CRs were concentrations of NAms in drinking water, exposure duration, drinking water ingestion rate, and exposure time during bathing. Our findings suggest the urgent need to develop and enforce effective regulatory policies to control the contamination of NAms in drinking water in China. Graphical abstract

This paper searches the role of financial sector development in energy sector and therefore in climate changes in the case of developing and developed countries. Panel data ranging from 1960 to 2014 on an annual basis has been selected from 176 countries. Results suggest that carbon dioxide emissions in developed and developing countries are in long-term equilibrium relationship with financial sector; trade and finance sectors have long-term significant impacts on carbon emissions and therefore carbon emissions converge to their long-term equilibrium levels through the channels of finance and trade sectors. Impulse response analyses proved that finance and trade sectors have negative (reducing) impact on the emission levels in the case of developed economies while they have positive impact in the case of developing economies. These sectors exert significant effects on energy consumption of countries as well. Results confirm that developed countries are more successful in energy conservation policies compared to developing countries. Therefore, authorities in developing countries need to implement conservation policies effectively by mainly encouraging and supporting investments in alternative energy uses in order to prevent increases in emission levels through expansion in financial and trade sectors.

Contamination with mining wastes affects the environmental health and public, especially the human populations that live in these environments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genotoxicity and levels of mercury (Hg) and arsenic (As) in blood samples from human populations exposed to mining activities in the upper basin of the San Jorge River. A total of 100 individuals participated in the study, 50 as an exposed group (Bocas de Ure = 15 individuals, Mina el Alacrán = 19 individuals, Torno Rojo = 16 individuals) and 50 individuals participated as the control group. Hg and As contents in blood samples were analyzed with atomic absorption spectrophotometry. A comet assay in peripheral blood lymphocytes and a micronucleus (MN) cytome assay (BMCyt) in exfoliated buccal cells were used to assess the effects of exposure to heavy metals on human communities located in mining areas. Higher concentrations of Hg and As were observed in human populations located in mining areas. The comet assay and BMCyt data revealed DNA damage and cell death in human communities located in mining areas. A positive association between blood arsenic and genetic damage was found. These data confirm the public health risk of the population near mining sites. Our findings suggest that populations that live at sites close to mining activities have high contents of heavy metals and genotoxic effects, representing a risk to human health.

Straw burning has become a hot topic in recent years as it poses a great risk not only to the lung health of residents in exposed areas but also to large-scale haze events. In order to have a more comprehensive understanding of straw burning research, based on the bibliometric analysis of Science Citation Index Expanded from Web of Science, the research progress of straw burning pollution from 1972 to 2016 and the future research trends were carried out in this paper. The research focuses on the document type, language, publication year, times cited and its output characteristics, subject category, journal, national and institutional distribution, author, etc. The results show that the study of straw burning pollution has shown a significant increase over the past 45 years. A total of 813 publications were found, and English was the most commonly used language. Articles were the most frequently appeared document types, and the researches were strongly embracing with the top 3 popular subject categories of “environmental sciences and ecology,” “agriculture,” and “meteorology and atmospheric sciences.” We identified that the major journals publishing straw burning pollution research were Atmospheric Environment, followed by Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. China as a leader in paper quantity played an important role in the research field of straw burning pollution, while the USA and India were located in the second and third positions. The most productive institution was Chinese Academy of Sciences, followed by Peking University and University Arkansas. Based on our analysis and the consideration of current environmental problems, more studies should focus on the following three aspects in the future: driving mechanism of emission characteristics, construction of high-resolution emission inventories, and the influencing mechanism of straw burning pollutants on climate change and human health. Our analysis and prospects can be served as a useful reference for future studies.