Climate warming is expected to impact the response of species to insecticides. Recent studies show that this interaction between insecticides and temperature can depend on other factors. Here, we tested for the influence of transgenerational effects on the Insecticide × Temperature interaction in the crop pest moth Spodoptera littoralis. Specifically, we analysed reaction norms among experimental clutches based on a split-plot design crossing the factors temperature, insecticide and clutch. The study was performed on 2280 larvae reared at four temperatures (23, 25, 27 and 29 °C), and their response to the insecticide deltamethrin (three concentrations and a control group) was tested. Temperature had a global influence with effects on larval survival, duration of development, pupal body mass, and significant reaction norms of the clutches for temperature variations of only 2 °C. In addition to the expected effect of deltamethrin on mortality, the insecticide slightly delayed the development of S. littoralis, and the effects on mortality and development differed among the clutches. Projection models integrating all the observed responses illustrated the additive effects of deltamethrin and temperature on the population multiplication rate. Variation in the response of the clutches showed that transgenerational effects influenced the impact of insecticide and temperature. Although no evidence indicated that the Insecticide × Temperature interaction depended on transgenerational effects, the studies on the dependence of the Insecticide × Temperature interaction on other factors continue to be crucial to confidently predict the combined effects of insecticides and climate warming.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) is an important air pollutant and highly related to air quality, short- and long-term health effects, and even climate. A national model was developed using the extreme gradient boosting algorithm with high-resolution tropospheric vertical column NO₂ densities from the Sentinel-5 Precursor/Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument and general meteorological variables as input to generate daily mean surface NO₂ concentrations across mainland China. Model-derived daily NO₂ estimates were high accuracy with sample-based cross-validation coefficient of determination of 0.83, a root-mean-square error of 7.58 μg/m³, a mean prediction error of 5.56 μg/m³, and a mean relative prediction error of 18.08%. It has good performance in NO₂ estimations at both regional and individual site scale. The model also performed well in terms of estimating monthly, seasonal, and annual mean NO₂ concentrations across China. The model performance appears to better than or comparable to most previous related studies. The seasonal and annual spatial distributions of surface NO₂ across China and several regional NO₂ hotspots in 2019 were derived from the model and analyzed. Also evaluated were the population exposure levels of NO₂ for cities in and provinces of China. At the national scale, about 12% of the population experienced annual mean NO₂ concentrations exceeding the Chinese national air quality standard. The nationwide model with conventional predictors developed here can derive high-resolution surface NO₂ concentrations across China routinely, benefitting air epidemiological and environmental related studies.

In this review, global change processes have been linked to polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in Canada and a first national budget of sources and sinks has been derived. Sources are dominated by wildfire emissions that affect western and northern regions of Canada disproportionately due to the location of Pacific and boreal forests and the direction of prevailing winds. Wildfire emissions are projected to increase under climate warming along with releases from the thawing of glaciers and permafrost. Residential wood combustion, domestic transportation and industry contribute the bulk of anthropogenic emissions, though they are substantially smaller than wildfire emissions and are not expected to change considerably in coming years. Other sources such as accidental spills, deforestation, and re-emission of previous industrial deposition are expected to contribute anthropogenic and biogenic PACs to nearby ecosystems. PAC sinks are less well-understood. Atmospheric deposition is similar in magnitude to anthropogenic sources. Considerable knowledge gaps preclude the estimation of environmental transformations and transboundary flows, and assessing the importance of climate change relative to shifts in population distribution and energy production is not yet possible. The outlook for PACs in the Arctic is uncertain due to conflicting assessments of competing factors and limited measurements, some of which provide a baseline but have not been followed up in recent years. Climate change has led to an increase in primary productivity in the Arctic Ocean, but PAC-related impacts on marine biota appear to be modest. The net effect of changes in ecological exposure from changing emissions and environmental conditions throughout Canada remains to be seen. Evidence suggests that the PAC budget at the national scale does not represent impacts at the local or regional level. The ability to assess future trends depends on improvements to Canada’s environmental measurement strategy and biogeochemical modelling capability.

Forest-stream ecosystems are widespread and biodiverse terrestrial landscapes with physical and social connections to downstream human activities. After radiocesium is introduced into these ecosystems, various material flows cause its accumulation or dispersal. We review studies conducted in the decade after the Fukushima nuclear accident to clarify the mechanisms of radiocesium transfer within ecosystems and to downstream areas through biological, hydrological, and geomorphological processes. After its introduction, radiocesium is heavily deposited in the organic soil layer, leading to persistent circulation due to biological activities in soils. Some radiocesium in soils, litter, and organisms is transported to stream ecosystems, forming contamination spots in depositional habitats. While reservoir dams function as effective traps, radiocesium leaching from sediments is a continual phenomenon causing re-contamination downstream. Integration of data regarding radiocesium dynamics and contamination sites, as proposed here, is essential for contamination management in societies depending on nuclear power to address the climate crisis.

Black carbon transport from the Santiago Metropolitan Area, Chile, up to the adjacent Andes Cordillera and its glaciers is of major concern. Its deposition accelerates the melting of the snowpack, which could lead to stress on water supply in addition to climate feedback. A proposed pathway for this transport is the channelling through the network of canyons that connect the urban basin to the elevated summits, as suggested by modelling studies, although no observations have validated this hypothesis so far. In this work, atmospheric measurements from a dedicated field campaign conducted in winter 2015, under severe urban pollution conditions, in Santiago and the Maipo canyon, southeast of Santiago, are analysed. Wind (speed and direction) and particulate matter concentrations measured at the surface and along vertical profiles, demonstrate intrusions of thick layers (up to 600 m above ground) of urban black carbon deep into the canyon on several occasions. Transport of PM down-valley occurs mostly through shallow layers at the surface except in connection with deep valley intrusions, when a secondary layer in altitude with return flow (down-valley) at night is observed. The transported particulate matter is mostly from the vicinity of the entrance to the canyon and uncorrelated to concentrations observed in downtown Santiago. Reanalyses data show that for 10% of the wintertime days, deep intrusions into the Maipo canyon are prevented by easterly winds advecting air pollutants away from the Andes. Also, in 23% of the cases, intrusions proceed towards a secondary north-eastward branch of the Maipo canyon, leaving 67% of the cases with favourable conditions for deep penetrations into the main Maipo canyon. Reanalyses show that the wind directions associated to the 33% anomalous cases are related to thick cloud cover and/or the development of coastal lows.

In this study, we evaluated the effects of geo-climatic parameters and other potential risk factors on the prevalence of chronic toxoplasmosis (CT) in pregnant women. We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE, Scopus, and SciELO databases for seroepidemiological studies published between January 1988, and February 2021. We performed meta-analysis and meta-regression by using a random effect model to synthesize data. A total of 360 eligible datasets, including 1,289,605 pregnant women from 94 countries, were included in this study. The highest and lowest prevalence rates were estimated for latitudes of 0–10° (49.4%) and ≥50° (26.8%); and for the longitude of 80–90° (44.2%) and 110–120° (7.8%), respectively. Concerning climatic parameters, the highest and lowest prevalence rates were estimated in regions with the mean relative humidities of >80% (46.6%) and <40% (27.0); annual precipitation between 1000 and 1500 mm (39.2%) and 250–500 mm (26.8%); and mean annual temperature of 20–30 °C (36.5%), and <7 °C (24.9%), respectively. Meta-regression analyses indicated significant increasing trends in prevalence of CT in pregnant women with decrease in geographical latitude (coefficient, = −0.0035), and geographical longitudes (C = −0.0017). While it was positively associated (P < 0.01) with the mean environmental temperature (C = 0.0047), annual precipitation (C = 0.000064), and mean relative humidity (C = 0.002). Our results highlighted various effects of environmental parameters on the prevalence of CT. Therefore, different regions in the world may benefit from different types of interventions, and thus, novel preventive measures in a region should be developed according to local climate, agricultural activities and people culture.

Atmospheric warming and increasing tropospheric ozone (O₃) concentrations often co-occur in many cities of the world including China, adversely affecting the health status of urban trees. However, little information is known about the combined and interactive effects from increased air temperature (IT) and elevated O₃ (EO) exposures on urban tree species. Here, Ginkgo biloba and Populus alba ‘Berolinensis’ seedlings were subjected to IT (+2 °C of ambient air temperature) and/or EO (+2-fold ambient air O₃ concentrations) for one growing season by using open-top chambers. IT alone had no significant effect on physiological metabolisms at the early growing stage, but significantly increased photosynthetic parameters, antioxidative enzyme activities (P < 0.05). EO alone decreased physiological parameters except for increased oxidative stress. Compared to EO exposure alone, plants grown under IT and EO combined showed higher antioxidative and photosynthetic activity. There was a significant interactive effect between IT and EO on net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, water use efficiency, the maximum quantum efficiency of PSII photochemistry, the actual quantum efficiency of PSII, enzyme activities, aboveground biomass and root/shoot ratio (P < 0.05), respectively. These results suggested that during one growing season, IT mitigated the adverse effect of EO on the tested plants. In addition, we found that G. biloba was more sensitive than P. alba ‘Berolinensis’ to both IT and EO, suggesting that G. biloba may be a good indicator species for climate warming and air pollution, particularly under environmental conditions as they co-occur in urban areas.

Vast areas of Europe were contaminated by the fallout of ¹³⁷Cs and other radionuclides, as a result of the Chernobyl accident in 1986. The post-fallout redistribution of Chernobyl-derived ¹³⁷Cs was associated with erosion and sediment transport processes within the fluvial system. Bottom sediments from lakes and reservoirs can provide a valuable source of information regarding the post-fallout redistribution and fate of ¹³⁷Cs released by the Chernobyl accident. A detailed investigation of sediment-associated ¹³⁷Cs in the bottom sediments of a reservoir in a Chernobyl-affected area in Central Russia has been undertaken. A new approach, based on the vertical distribution of ¹³⁷Cs activity concentrations in the reservoir bottom sediment makes it possible to separate the initially deposited bottom sediment, where the ¹³⁷Cs activity reflects the direct fallout of Chernobyl-derived ¹³⁷Cs to the reservoir surface and its subsequent incorporation into sediment deposited immediately after the accident, from the sediment mobilized from the catchment deposited subsequently. The deposits representing direct fallout from the atmosphere was termed the “Chernobyl peak”. Its shape can be described by a diffusion equation and it can be distinguished from the remaining catchment-derived ¹³⁷Cs associated with sediment accumulated with sediments during the post-Chernobyl period. The ¹³⁷Cs depth distribution above the "Chernobyl peak" was used to provide a record of changes in the concentration of sediment-associated ¹³⁷Cs transported from the upstream catchment during the post-Chernobyl period. It was found that the ¹³⁷Cs activity concentration in the sediment deposited in the reservoir progressively decreased during the 30-year period after the accident due to a reduction in the contribution of sediment eroded from the arable land in the catchment. This reflects a reduction in both the area of cultivated land area and the reduced incidence of surface runoff from the slopes during spring snowmelt due to climate warming.

Critical loads are thresholds of atmospheric deposition below which harmful ecological effects do not occur. Because lichens are sensitive to atmospheric deposition, lichen-based critical loads can foreshadow changes of other forest processes. Here, we derive critical loads of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) deposition for continental US and coastal Alaskan forests, based on nationally consistent lichen community surveys at 8855 sites. Across the eastern and western US ranges of 459 lichen species, each species' realized optimum was the N or S atmospheric deposition value at which it most frequently occurred. The mean of optima for all species at a site, weighted by their abundances, was defined as a community “airscore” indicative of species’ collective responses to atmospheric deposition. To determine critical loads for adverse community compositional shifts, we then modeled changes in airscores as a function of deposition, climate and forest habitat predictors in nonparametric multiplicative regression. Critical loads, indicative of initial shifts from pollution-sensitive toward pollution-tolerant species, occurred at 1.5 kg N ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ and 2.7 kg S ha⁻¹ y⁻¹. Importantly, these critical loads remain constant under any climate regime nationwide, suggesting both simplicity and nationwide applicability. Our models predict that preventing excess N deposition of just 0.2–2.0 kg ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ in the next century could offset the detrimental effects of predicted climate warming on lichen communities. Because excess deposition and climate warming both harm the most ecologically influential species, keeping conditions below critical loads would sustain both forest ecosystem functioning and climate resilience.

Global climate change (GCC) significantly affects aquatic ecosystems. Continual use of pyrethroid insecticides results in contamination of these ecosystems and concurrent GCC raises the potential for synergistic effects. Resistance to pyrethroids has been documented in Hyalella azteca, a common epibenthic amphipod and model organism. Resistant H. azteca can bioconcentrate elevated amounts of pyrethroids and represent a threat to consumers via trophic transfer. In the present study, a predator of H. azteca, the inland silverside (Menidia beryllina), was used to examine the impacts of GCC on pyrethroid bioaccumulation via trophic transfer from resistant prey organisms. M. beryllina were fed ¹⁴C-permethrin dosed pyrethroid-resistant H. azteca for 14 days at three salinities (6, 13 and 20 practical salinity units (PSU)) and two temperatures (18 and 23 °C). Fish were analyzed for total body residues, percent parent compound and percent metabolites. Gene expression in liver and brain tissue were evaluated to assess whether dietary bioaccumulation of permethrin would impact detoxification processes, metabolism, and general stress responses. M. beryllina bioaccumulated significant amounts of permethrin across all treatments, ranging from 39 to 557 ng g⁻¹ lipid. No statistically significant effect of temperature was found on total bioaccumulation. Salinity had a significant effect on total bioaccumulation, owing to greater bioaccumulation at 6 PSU compared to 13 and 20 PSU, which may be due to alterations to xenobiotic elimination. Permethrin bioaccumulation and the interaction with temperature and salinity elicited significant transcriptional responses in genes relating to detoxification, growth, development, and immune response. Given the increased prevalence of pesticide-resistant aquatic invertebrates, GCC-induced alterations to temperature and salinity, and the predicted increase in pesticide usage, these findings suggest trophic transfer may play an important role in pesticide bioaccumulation and effects in predatory fish.