To evaluate plant and herbivore responses to nitrogen we conducted a fertilization study at a low and high pollution site in the mixed conifer forests surrounding Los Angeles, California. Contrary to expectations, discriminant function analysis of oak herbivore communities showed significant response to N fertilization when atmospheric deposition was high, but not when atmospheric deposition was low. We hypothesize that longer-term fertilization treatments are needed at the low pollution site before foliar N nutrition increases sufficiently to affect herbivore communities. At the high pollution site, fertilization was also associated with increased catkin production and higher densities of a byturid beetle that feeds on the catkins of oak. Leaf nitrogen and nitrate were significantly higher at the high pollution site compared to the low pollution site. Foliar nitrate concentrations were positively correlated with abundance of sucking insects, leafrollers and plutellids in all three years of the study.

The effect of nitrogen on biomass production, shoot elongation and relative density of the mosses Pleurozium schreberi, Hylocomium splendens and Dicranum polysetum was studied in a chamber experiment. Monocultures were exposed to 10 N levels ranging from 0.02 to 7.35 g N m-2 during a 90-day period. All the growth responses were unimodal, but the species showed differences in the shape parameters of the curves. Hylocomium and Pleurozium achieved optimum biomass production at a lower N level than Dicranum. Pleurozium had the highest biomass production per tissue N concentration. Tolerance to N was the widest in Dicranum, whereas Hylocomium had the narrowest tolerance. Dicranum retained N less efficiently from precipitation than the other two species, which explained its deviating response. All species translocated some N from parent to new shoots. The results emphasize that the individual responses of bryophytes to N should be known when species are used as bioindicators. Boreal bryophytes display differences in their sensitivity to nitrogen.

Arsenate tolerance, As accumulation and As-induced phytochelatin accumulation were compared in populations of Silene paradoxa, one from a mine site enriched in As, Cu and Zn, the other from an uncontaminated site. The mine population was significantly more arsenate-tolerant. Arsenate uptake and root-to-shoot transport were slightly but significantly higher in the non-mine plants. The difference in uptake was quantitatively insufficient to explain the difference in tolerance between the populations. As accumulation in the roots was similar in both populations, but the mine plants accumulated much less phytochelatins than the non-mine plants. The mean phytochelatin chain length, however, was higher in the mine population, possibly due to a constitutively lower cellular glutathione level. It is argued that the mine plants must possess an arsenic detoxification mechanism other than arsenate reduction and subsequent phytochelatin-based sequestration. This alternative mechanism might explain at least some part of the superior tolerance in the mine plants. Neither decreased uptake nor phytochelatins seem to play a role in the As tolerance in Silene paradoxa.

Gaseous emissions of combusted electronic scrap, PVC, carpet and wood were monitored for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by simultaneous use of semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) and shoots of spruce needles (Picea abies). It was found that phenanthrene, acenaphthylene and fluorene were the dominating PAHs in all samples. SPMDs and needles mainly sequestered PAH associated with the vapor phase. Particle-bound PAHs were only detected in small amounts, at which the needles tended to uptake more of these compounds in comparison to the SPMDs. Nevertheless, the logarithm of the concentrations of PAHs analyzed in both passive samplers after the same sampling period exhibited a significant linear correlation with correlation coefficients larger than 0.8073. SPMDs and spruce needles can complement each other in passive air sampling for compounds with a preference to the gas phase rather than aerosols.Relationship of PAHs in SPMDs and spruce needles at the same sampling time was found.

The proper use of bioaccumulation in the assessment of environmental quality involves accounting for chemical fluxes in organisms. Cadmium (Cd) accumulation kinetics in a soil-plant-snail food chain were therefore investigated in the field under different soil contamination (from 0 to 40 mg kg-1), soil pH (6 and 7) and season. Allowing for an accurate and sensitive assessment of Cd transfer to snails, toxicokinetics appears an interesting tool in the improvement of risk assessment procedures and a way to quantify metal bioavailability for a defined target. On the basis of uptake fluxes, snails proved to be sensitive enough to distinguish moderate soil contaminations. The soil pH did not appear, in the range studied, as a modulating parameter of the Cd transfer from soil to snail whereas the season, by influencing the snail mass, may modify the internal concentrations. The present data specifying a time integrated assessment of environmental factors on metal bioavailability and transfer to terrestrial snails should ensure their rational use in environmental biomonitoring. Toxicokinetics and uptake fluxes can be used to describe the environment contamination by Cd, its bioavailability and transfer to Helix aspersa snails in the field.

We examined acute (2 h exposure of 5-day-old larvae) and subchronic (exposure from fertilization up to an age of 11 days) effects of NiCl2·6H2O on embryos and larvae of zebrafish (Danio rerio), both alone and in combination with oxygen depletion. The following endpoints were recorded: acute exposure: locomotory activity and survival; subchronic exposure: hatching rate, deformations, locomotory activity (at 5, 8 and 11 days) and mortality. In acute exposures nickel chloride (7.5-15 mg Ni/L) caused decreasing locomotory activity. Oxygen depletion (<=2.45 ± 0.16 mg O2/L) also resulted in significantly reduced locomotory activity. In the subchronic test, exposure to >=10 mg Ni/L resulted in delayed hatching at an age of 96 h, in decreased locomotory activity at an age of 5 days, and increased mortality at an age of 11 days (LC20 = 9.5 mg Ni/L). The observed LOEC for locomotory activity (7.5 mg Ni/L) is in the range of environmentally relevant concentrations. Since locomotory activity was already affected by acute exposure, this parameter is recommended to supplement commonly recorded endpoints of toxicity. Increasing concentrations of nickel chloride and decreasing concentrations of oxygen lead to reduced vitality and locomotory activity in Danio rerio embryos and larvae.

The relationship between the microbial methylation of mercury and the microbial activities in sediments and water collected from the estuary of Bilbao (North of Spain) was studied in three different sampling points and in two different seasons. Three different cultures were prepared with a sediment slurry to distinguish between biotic and abiotic methylation pathways and the variations of the methylmercury concentration and the variations of the population of total number of bacteria (TDC), anaerobic heterotrophic bacteria (AHB), sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and Desulfovibrio were measured. From this work, it can be concluded that the variation of MeHg concentrations is a result of the methylation/demethylation processes in the sediments, and that the abiotic processes have a negligible contribution to those processes. According to the statistical analysis of the results (partial least squares analysis) a significant statistical correlation was established between methylmercury and the SRB counts.The methylation of mercury follows a stationary pattern linked to the variation of sulphate-reducing bacteria.

The response of alpine heathland vegetation and soil chemistry to N additions of 0, 10, 20 and 50 kg N ha−1 year−1 in combination with simulated accidental fire (+/−) was monitored over a 5-year period. N addition caused rapid and significant increases in plant tissue N content and N:P and N:K of Calluna vulgaris, suggesting increasing phosphorus and potassium limitation of growth. Soil C:N declined significantly with N addition, indicating N saturation and increasing likelihood of N leakage. Fire further decreased soil C:N and reduced potential for sequestration of additional N. This study shows that alpine heathlands, which occupy the headwaters of many rivers, have limited potential to retain deposited N and may rapidly become N saturated, leaking N into downstream communities and surface waters. N deposition on alpine heathland causes a rapid shift towards P limitation and subsequent N saturation of vegetation and soil.

Environmental pollution with petroleum products such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) has garnered increasing awareness because of its serious consequences for human health and the environment. We have constructed toluene bacterial biosensors comprised of two reporter genes, gfp and luxCDABE, characterized by green fluorescence and luminescence, respectively, and compared their abilities to detect bioavailable toluene and related compounds. The bacterial luminescence biosensor allowed faster and more-sensitive detection of toluene; the fluorescence biosensor strain was much more stable and thus more applicable for long-term exposure. Both luminescence and fluorescence biosensors were field-tested to measure the relative bioavailability of BTEX in contaminated groundwater and soil samples. The estimated BTEX concentrations determined by the luminescence and fluorescence bacterial biosensors were closely comparable to each other. Our results demonstrate that both bacterial luminescence and fluorescence biosensors are useful in determining the presence and the bioavailable fractions of BTEX in the environment. The choice of reporter genes for toluene bacterial biosensors to determine BTEX bioavailability is case-specific.

Loss of nitrogen from the soil-plant system has raised environmental concern. This study assessed the fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O) in the subsurface flow constructed wetlands (CWs). To better understand the mechanism of N2O emission, spatial distribution of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in four kinds of wetlands soil were compared. N2O emission data showed large temporal and spatial variation ranging from -5.5 to 32.7 mg N2O m-2 d-1. The highest N2O emission occurred in the cell planted with Phragmites australis and Zizania latifolia. Whereas, the lower emission rate were obtained in the cell planted with P. australis and Typha latifolia. These revealed that Z. latifolia stimulated the N2O emission. Transportation of more organic matter and oxygen for AOB growth may be the reason. The study of AOB also supported this result, indicating that the root structure of Z. latifolia was favored by AOB for N2O formation. Zizania latifolia has a large contribution to global warming.