Microplastics, degraded and weathered polymer-based particles, and manufactured products ranging between 50 and 5000 μm in size, are found within marine, freshwater, and estuarine environments. While numerous peer-reviewed papers have quantified the ingestion of microplastics by marine vertebrates, relatively few studies have focused on microplastic ingestion by freshwater organisms. This study documents microplastic and manufactured fiber ingestion by bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) and longear (Lepomis megalotis) sunfish (Centrarchidae) from the Brazos River Basin, between Lake Whitney and Marlin, Texas, USA. Fourteen sample sites were studied and categorized into urban, downstream, and upstream areas. A total of 436 sunfish were collected, and 196 (45%) stomachs contained microplastics. Four percent (4%) of items sampled were debris on the macro size scale (i.e. >5 mm) and consisted of masses of plastic, metal, Styrofoam, or fishing material, while 96% of items sampled were in the form of microplastic threads. Fish length was statistically correlated to the number of microplastics detected (p = 0.019). Fish collected from urban sites displayed the highest mean number of microplastics ingested, followed by downstream and upstream sites. Microplastics were associated with the ingestion of other debris items (e.g. sand and wood) and correlated to the ingestion of fish eggs, earthworms, and mollusks, suggesting that sunfish incidentally ingest microplastics during their normal feeding methods. The high frequency of microplastic ingestion suggest that further research is needed to determine the residence time of microplastics within the stomach and gut, potential for food web transfer, and adverse effects on wildlife and ecosystemic health.

Glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP), which contains glycoproteins produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as well as non-mycorrhizal-related heat-stable proteins, lipids, and humic materials, is generally categorized into two fractions: easily extractable GRSP (EE-GRSP) and total GRSP (T-GRSP). GRSP plays an important role in soil carbon (C) sequestration and can stabilize heavy metals such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and manganese (Mn). Soil contamination by heavy metals is occurring in conjunction with rising atmospheric CO2 in natural ecosystems due to human activities. However, the response of GRSP to elevated CO2 combined with heavy metal contamination has not been widely reported. Here, we investigated the response of GRSP to elevated CO2 in the rhizosphere of Robinia pseudoacacia L. seedlings in Pb- and Cd-contaminated soils. Elevated CO2 (700 μmol mol−1) significantly increased T- and EE- GRSP concentrations in soils contaminated with Cd, Pb or Cd + Pb. GRSP contributed more carbon to the rhizosphere soil organic carbon pool under elevated CO2 + heavy metals than under ambient CO2. The amount of Cd and Pb bound to GRSP was significantly higher under elevated (compared to ambient) CO2; and elevated CO2 increased the ratio of GRSP-bound Cd and Pb to total Cd and Pb. However, available Cd and Pb in rhizosphere soil under increased elevated CO2 compared to ambient CO2. The combination of both metals and elevated CO2 led to a significant increase in available Pb in rhizosphere soil compared to the Pb treatment alone. In conclusion, increased GRSP produced under elevated CO2 could contribute to sequestration of soil pollutants by adsorption of Cd and Pb.

This study investigates the impact of repeated diesel spills on the structure of intertidal macrofaunal assemblages of a subtropical estuary. Three frequencies of exposure events were compared against two dosages of oil in a factorial experiment with asymmetrical controls. Hypotheses were tested to distinguish between (i) the overall effect of oil spills, (ii) the effect of diesel dosage via different exposure regimes, and (iii) the effect of time since last spill. Repeated oil spills dramatically altered the overall structure of assemblages and reduced the total density of macrofauna and densities of dominant taxa. Increasing the frequency of oil spills negatively affected macrofauna. In general, frequent low-dosage oil spills were more deleterious than infrequent high-dosage ones. However, increases in densities of some taxa, mainly the gastropod Heleobia australis, were observed in response to infrequent spills. Our results highlight the importance of repeated exposure events in determining the extent of oil impacts.

Trophic transfer of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in aquatic ecosystems is an important criterion for assessing their environmental risk. This study analyzed 13 PBDEs in marine organisms collected from coastal area of Bohai Bay, China. The concentrations of total PBDEs (Σ13PBDEs) ranged from 12 ± 1.1 ng/g wet weight (ww) to 230 ± 54 ng/g ww depending on species. BDE-47 was the predominant compound, with a mean abundance of 20.21 ± 12.97% of total PBDEs. Stable isotopic ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) were analyzed to determine the food web structure and trophic level respectively. Trophic magnification factors (TMFs) of PBDEs were assessed as the slope of lipid equivalent concentrations regressed against trophic levels. Significant positive relationships were found for Σ13PBDEs and eight PBDE congeners (BDE-28, BDE-47, BDE-49, BDE-66, BDE-85, BDE-99, BDE-100 and BDE-154). Monte-Carlo simulations showed that the probabilities of TMF >1 were 100% for Σ13PBDEs, BDE-47, BDE-85, BDE-99 and BDE-100, 99% for DE-28, BDE-49, BDE-66 and BDE-154, 94% for BDE-153, and 35% for BDE-17.

Insufficient understanding of the hydrogeochemistry of aquifers makes it necessary to conduct a preliminary water quality assessment in the southern region of Ordos Basin, an arid area in the world. In this paper, the major ions of groundwater have been studied aiming at evaluating the hydrogeochemical processes that probably affect the groundwater quality using 150 samples collected in 2015. The two prevalent hydrochemical facies, HCO3Mg·Na·Ca and HCO3Mg·Ca·Na type water, have been identified based on the hydrochemical analysis from Piper trilinear diagram. Compositional relations have been used to assess the origin of solutes and confirm the predominant hydrogeochemical processes responsible for the various ions in the groundwater. The results show that the ions are derived from leaching effect, evaporation and condensation, cation exchange, mixing effect and human activities. Finally groundwater quality was assessed with single factor and set pair methods, the results indicate that groundwater quality in the study region is generally poor in terms of standard of national groundwater quality. The results obtained in this study will be useful to understand the groundwater quality status for effective management and utilization of the groundwater resource.

Antimony (Sb), as a toxic metalloid, has been gaining increasing research concerns due mainly to its severe pollution in many places. Rice has been identified to be the dominant intake route of Sb by residents close to the Sb mining areas. A hydroponic experiment was conducted to investigate the difference in uptake, translocation and transformation of Sb in rice seedlings of four cultivars exposed to 0.2 or 1.0 mg/L of Sb(V). The results showed that mass concentration of iron plaque (mg/kg FW) formed at the root surfaces of cultivar N was the highest among all tested cultivars at both low and high exposure levels of Sb(V). The accumulated Sb concentration in iron plaque significantly increased with an increase in mass concentration of iron plaque formed at the rice root. The total amount of iron plaque (mg/pot) at rice root generally increased with increasing exposed Sb(V) concentration, which was closely associated with the increasing lipid peroxidation in roots. Concentration percentage of Sb in rice root significantly reduced as the corresponding value in the iron plaque increased, suggesting that iron plaque formation strongly suppressed uptake of Sb by rice root. Sb concentration in rice tissues followed an order: root > stem, leaf. The japonica rice (cultivars N and Z) exhibited a stronger translocation tendency of Sb from root to stem than indica hybrid rice (cultivars F and G). Translocation of Sb from root of cultivar F to its stem and leaf was sharply enhanced with increasing Sb exposure concentration. Sb(V) could be reduced to Sb(III) in rice tissues, especially in stems (10–26% of the total Sb). For the sake of food safety, the difference in uptake, translocation and transformation of Sb in rice species planted in Sb-contaminated soils should be taken into consideration.

The influence of bacteria on the transport and deposition behaviors of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in quartz sand was examined in both NaCl (5 and 25 mM ionic strength) and CaCl2 (0.3 and 1.2 mM ionic strength) solutions at unadjusted pH (5.6–5.8) by direct comparison of both breakthrough curves and retained profiles in both the presence and absence of bacteria. Two types of widely utilized CNTs, i.e., carboxyl- and hydroxyl-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-COOH and MWCNT-OH, respectively), were employed as model CNTs and Escherichia coli was utilized as the model bacterium. The results showed that, for both types of MWCNTs under all examined conditions, the breakthrough curves were higher in the presence of bacteria, while the retained profiles were lower, indicating that the co-presence of bacteria in suspension increased the transport and decreased the deposition of MWCNTs in porous media, regardless of ionic strength or ion valence. Complementary characterizations and extra column tests demonstrated that competition by bacteria for deposition sites on the quartz sand surfaces was a major (and possibly the sole) contributor to the enhanced MWCNTs transport in porous media.

We investigated the effect of solution pH and soil structure on transport of sulfonamide antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole, sulfadimethoxine and sulfamethazine) in combination with batch sorption tests and column experiments. Sorption isotherms properly conformed to Freundlich model, and sorption potential of the antibiotics is as follows; sulfadimethoxine > sulfamethoxazole > sulfamethazine. Decreasing pH values led to increased sorption potential of the antibiotics on soil material in pH range of 4.0–8.0. This likely resulted from abundance of neutral and positive-charged sulfonamides species at low pH, which electrostatically bind to sorption sites on soil surface. Due to destruction of macropore channels, lower hydraulic conductivities of mobile zone were estimated in the disturbed soil columns than in the undisturbed soil columns, and eventually led to lower mobility of the antibiotics in disturbed column. The results suggest that knowledge of soil structure and solution condition is required to predict fate and distribution of sulfonamide antibiotics in environmental matrix.

Concentrations and patterns of hydroxylated (OH) polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were investigated in liver from arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) sampled from Svalbard 1997–2011 (n = 100). The most important OH-PBDE in the arctic foxes was 6-OH-BDE47 detected in 24% of the samples. Relationships between 6-OH-BDE47, δ13C and BDE47 suggest that 6-OH-BDE47 residues in arctic foxes are related to marine dietary input, while the relative importance of the metabolic/natural origin of this compound remains unclear. 4-OH-CB187 and 4-OH-CB146 were the main OH-PCBs among the analyzed compounds. The OH-PCB pattern in the present arctic foxes indicates that arctic foxes have a capacity to biotransform a wide range of PCBs of different structures. Formation and retention of OH-PCBs was tightly related to PCB exposure. Furthermore, ΣOH-PCB concentrations were four times higher in the leanest compared to the fattest foxes. Concentrations of 4-OH-CB187 and 4-OH-CB146 among the highest contaminated arctic foxes were similar to the previously reported concentrations for polar bears. Given the high endocrine disruptive potential of OH-PCBs, we suggest that endocrine system may be affected by the relatively high OH-PCB residues in the Svalbard arctic fox population.

Ingestion of soot present in soil or other environmental particles is expected to be an important route of exposure to nitro and oxygenated derivatives of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We measured the apparent bioaccessibility (Bapp) of native concentrations of 1-nitropyrene (1N-PYR), 9-fluorenone (9FLO), anthracene-9,10-dione (ATQ), benzo[a]anthracene-7,12-dione (BaAQ), and benzanthrone (BZO) in a composite fuel soot sample using a previously-developed in vitro human gastrointestinal model that includes silicone sheet as a third-phase absorptive sink. Along with Bapp, we determined the 24-h sheet-digestive fluid partition coefficient (Ks,24h), the soot residue-fluid distribution ratio of the labile sorbed fraction after digestion (Kr,lab), and the maximum possible (limiting) bioaccessibility, Blim. The Bapp of PAH derivatives was positively affected by the presence of the sheet due to mass-action removal of the sorbed compounds. In all cases Bapp increased with imposition of fed conditions. The enhancement of Bapp under fed conditions is due to increasingly favorable mass transfer of target compounds from soot to fluid (increasing bile acid concentration, or adding food lipids) or transfer from fluid to sheet (by raising small intestinal pH). Food lipids may also enhance Bapp by mobilizing contaminants from nonlabile to labile states of the soot. Compared to the parent PAH, the derivatives had larger Kr,lab, despite having lower partition coefficients to various hydrophobic reference phases including silicone sheet. The Blim of the derivatives under the default conditions of the model ranged from 65.5% to 34.4%, in the order, 1N-PYR > ATQ > 9FLO > BZO > BaAQ, with no significant correlation with hydrophobic parameters, nor consistent relationship with Blim of the parent PAH. Consistent with earlier experiments on a wider range of PAHs, the results suggest that a major determinant of bioaccessibility is the distribution of chemical between nonlabile and labile states in the original solid.