The increasing demand for fresh water has forced many countries to use reclaimed wastewater for agricultural purposes. This water contains pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) that remain biologically active following passage through wastewater treatment plants. Run-off from farms and contaminated water from treatment facilities exposes aquatic ecosystems to PPCPs. This study examined the effects of PPCPs on a lower trophic organism. Culex quinquefasciatus larvae were reared in water contaminated with environmentally relevant concentrations of common PPCPs. Acetaminophen alone and a mixture of contaminants were found to increase developmental time of larvae. Susceptibility to Bti increased in larvae exposed to antibiotics, acetaminophen, or a mixture of PPCPs. Antibiotics, hormones, and the mixture altered the mosquito bacterial microbiome. Overall, the results indicate that at environmentally relevant concentrations, PPCPs in reclaimed water can have biologically important effects on an ecologically and medically important lower trophic level insect.

India is an agricultural country and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) accounts for nearly three fourth of the annual pesticide consumption. Selected OCPs were therefore quantified in 81 soil samples along urban–suburban–rural transect from New Delhi and Agra in the north, Kolkata in the east, Mumbai and Goa in the west and Chennai and Bangalore in the southern part of India. ΣOCPs ranges from 2 to 410 ng/g dry weight (Mean, 35) with dominance of endosulfan sulfate in the rural sites. Urban centers and suburbs reflects OCP usage for vector control. Lower winter temperature in New Delhi favored site-specific deposition of most OCPs in soil. Volatilization of OCPs from soil occurred in the Indian cities having higher ambient temperature. Due to the compounded impact of past and ongoing usage of selected OCPs like DDT, a sporadic cycle of emission and re-emission from Indian soil is expected to continue for many more years to come.

Nano-TiO2 is immunotoxic to fish and reduces the bactericidal function of fish neutrophils. Here, fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) were exposed to low and high environmentally relevant concentration of nano-TiO2 (2 ng g−1 and 10 μg g−1 body weight, respectively), and were challenged with common fish bacterial pathogens, Aeromonas hydrophila or Edwardsiella ictaluri. Pre-exposure to nano-TiO2 significantly increased fish mortality during bacterial challenge. Nano-TiO2 concentrated in the kidney and spleen. Phagocytosis assay demonstrated that nano-TiO2 has the ability to diminish neutrophil phagocytosis of A. hydrophila. Fish injected with TiO2 nanoparticles displayed significant histopathology when compared to control fish. The interplay between nanoparticle exposure, immune system, histopathology, and infectious disease pathogenesis in any animal model has not been described before. By modulating fish immune responses and interfering with resistance to bacterial pathogens, manufactured nano-TiO2 has the potential to affect fish survival in a disease outbreak.

Use of nanotechnology products is increasing; with silver (Ag) nanoparticles particularly widely used. A key uncertainty surrounding the risk assessment of AgNPs is whether their effects are driven through the same mechanism of action that underlies the toxic effects of Ag ions. We present the first full transcriptome study of the effects of Ag ions and NPs in an ecotoxicological model soil invertebrate, the earthworm Eisenia fetida. Gene expression analyses indicated similar mechanisms for both silver forms with toxicity being exerted through pathways related to ribosome function, sugar and protein metabolism, molecular stress, disruption of energy production and histones. The main difference seen between Ag ions and NPs was associated with potential toxicokinetic effects related to cellular internalisation and communication, with pathways related to endocytosis and cilia being significantly enriched. These results point to a common final toxicodynamic response, but initial internalisation driven by different exposure routes and toxicokinetic mechanisms.

This study aims to identify and apportion multi-source and multi-phase heavy metal pollution from natural and anthropogenic inputs using ensemble models that include stochastic gradient boosting (SGB) and random forest (RF) in agricultural soils on the local scale. The heavy metal pollution sources were quantitatively assessed, and the results illustrated the suitability of the ensemble models for the assessment of multi-source and multi-phase heavy metal pollution in agricultural soils on the local scale. The results of SGB and RF consistently demonstrated that anthropogenic sources contributed the most to the concentrations of Pb and Cd in agricultural soils in the study region and that SGB performed better than RF.

Copper (Cu) is an essential biocide for wood protection, but fails to protect wood against Cu-tolerant wood-destroying fungi. Recently Cu particles (size range: 1 nm–25 μm) were introduced to the wood preservation market. The new generation of preservatives with Cu-based nanoparticles (Cu-based NPs) is reputedly more efficient against wood-destroying fungi than conventional formulations. Therefore, it has the potential to become one of the largest end uses for wood products worldwide. However, during decomposition of treated wood Cu-based NPs and/or their derivate may accumulate in the mycelium of Cu-tolerant fungi and end up in their spores that are dispersed into the environment. Inhaled Cu-loaded spores can cause harm and could become a potential risk for human health. We collected evidence and discuss the implications of the release of Cu-based NPs by wood-destroying fungi and highlight the exposure pathways and subsequent magnitude of health impact.

A two-year experiment exposing Acer truncatum Bunge seedlings to elevated ozone (O3) concentrations above ambient air (AO) and drought stress (DS) was carried out using open-top chambers (OTCs) in a suburb of Beijing in north China in 2012–2013. The results suggested that AO and DS had both significantly reduced leaf mass area (LMA), stomatal conductance (Gs), light saturated photosynthetic rate (Asat) as well as above and below ground biomass at the end of the experiment. It appeared that while drought stress mitigated the expression of foliar injury, LMA, leaf photosynthetic pigments, height growth and basal diameter, due to limited carbon fixation, the O3 – induced reductions in Asat, Gs and total biomass were enhanced 23.7%. 15.5% and 8.1% respectively. These data suggest that when the whole plant was considered that drought under the conditions of this experiment did not protect the Shantung maple seedlings from the effects of O3.

Zebrafish were placed in the upper layer of aquariums to investigate the impacts of anatase and rutile nano-TiO2 on perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) bioaccumulation in zebrafish. Both variations of particle hydrodynamic size and concentration in water column suggest that anatase was better dispersed than rutile. PFOS could be significantly adsorbed on nano-TiO2 to form TiO2-PFOS complexes, leading to reduced concentration of PFOS in upper layer. Due to enhanced exposure to PFOS by ingestion and adhesion of TiO2-PFOS complexes, the whole-body PFOS concentration in zebrafish was enhanced by 59.0% (95% CI: 55.9%, 61.9%) and 25.4% (95% CI: 24.8%, 25.6%) in the presence of anatase and rutile nano-TiO2 after equilibrium compared with the control with PFOS alone. The bioaccumulation of PFOS was much more promoted by anatase, which was attributed by greater adsorption capacity of PFOS to anatase, slower migration of their complex in water column, and slower elimination rate of anatase from fish.

Microplastics are a source of environmental pollution resulting from degradation of plastic products and spillage of resin pellets. We report the amounts of microplastics from various sites of Lake Ontario and evaluate their potential for preservation in the sediment record. A total of 4635 pellets were sampled from the Humber Bay shoreline on three sampling dates. Pellet colours were similar to those from the Humber River bank, suggesting that the river is a pathway for plastics transport into Lake Ontario. Once in the lake, high density microplastics, including mineral-polyethylene and mineral-polypropylene mixtures, sink to the bottom. The minerals may be fillers that were combined with plastics during production, or may have adsorbed to the surfaces of the polymers in the water column or on the lake bottom. Based on sediment depths and accumulation rates, microplastics have accumulated in the offshore region for less than 38 years. Their burial increases the chance of microplastics preservation. Shoreline pellets may not be preserved because they are mingled with organic debris that is reworked during storm events.

Ecological risk assessment of chemicals aims at quantifying the likelihood of adverse effects posed to non-target populations and the communities they constitute, often based on lethal concentration estimates for standard test species. There may, however, be intra- and interspecific differences in responses to chemical exposure. Here with the help of a toxicokinetic-toxicodynamic model, we explored whether differential body sizes might explain the observed variability in sensitivity between species and between life-stages of each individual species, for three model organisms, Daphnia magna, Chaoborus crystallinus and Mesocyclops leuckarti. While body size-dependent toxicokinetics could be used to predict intraspecies variation in sensitivity, our results also suggest that changes in both toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic parameters might be needed to describe differential species sensitivity. Accounting for biological traits, like body size, in mechanistic effect models will allow more accurate predictions of chemical effects in size structured populations, ultimately providing mechanistic explanations for species sensitivity distributions.