Oil residues along shorelines are hard to remove after an oil spill. The effect of biodiesel to eliminate crude oil from pebbles alone and in combination with petroleum degrading bacteria was investigated in simulated systems. Adding biodiesel made oil detach from pebbles and formed oil–biodiesel mixtures, most of which remained on top of seawater. The total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) removal efficiency increased with biodiesel quantities but the magnitude of augment decreased gradually. When used with petroleum degrading bacteria, the addition of biodiesel (BD), nutrients (NUT) and BD+NUT increased the dehydrogenase activity and decreased the biodegradation half lives. When BD and NUT were replenished at the same time, the TPH removal efficiency was 7.4% higher compared to the total improvement of efficiency when BD and NUT was added separately, indicating an additive effect of biodiesel and nutrients on oil biodegradation.

Some of the largest seabird concentrations in the northern hemisphere are intersected by major shipping routes in the Aleutian Archipelago. Risk is the product of the probability and the severity incidents in an area. We build a seasonally explicit model of seabird distribution and combine the densities of seabirds with an oil vulnerability index. We use shipping density, as a proxy for the probability of oil spills from shipping accident (or the intensity chronic oil pollution). We find high-risk (above-average seabird and vessel density) areas around Unimak Pass, south of the Alaska Peninsula, near Buldir Island, and north of Attu Island. Risk to seabirds is greater during summer than during winter, but the month of peak risk (May/July) varies depending on how data is analyzed. The area around Unimak Pass stands out for being at high-risk year-round, whereas passes in the western Aleutians are at high risk mostly during summer.

Inspired by the adhesion of marine mussels, a kind of superhydrophobic oil sorbent was successfully fabricated by robustly immobilizing the micro/nanostructure layer onto the sponge skeleton. The as-prepared sponges possess excellent hydrophobicity with the water contact angle of 154°, which enables the sponge to selectively absorb various oils floating on water surface. The oil sorption capacities of as-prepared sponge for a series of oils can reach 18.3–46.8g/g. The absorbed oil can be recovered by mechanical squeezing and the resulting sponge can be recycled more than 70 cycles while still keeping high oil sorption capability. More importantly, the obtained sponge has excellent affinity to the high viscosity oils. Therefore, the as-prepared sponge might find practical applications in the large-scale removal of oils especially high viscosity oils from water surface.

In this paper, we studied the regional aerosol and air quality over an urban location, Pune, India during the period from 8 to 18 November 2012, encompassing a major Indian celebration, namely, Diwali Festival (12–14 November 2012) and also a clean (control) day (9 November 2012). A suit of ground–based measurements, employing solar radiometers (Microtops II and Cimel Sun–sky radiometer), Nephelometer, and satellite observations carried out over the study region have been applied for these investigations. The study revealed many interesting results which include (i) almost four–fold enhancement in AOD and fine mode dominated aerosol size distribution (ASD) during Diwali compared to clean day conditions; (ii) higher columnar water vapor (H2O), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and lower ozone (O3) during Diwali period; (iii) higher cooling at bottom (–117W m−2) and top of the atmosphere (–33W m−2) and warming (+82W m−2) in the atmosphere during the festival period, (iv) abundance of fine mode anthropogenic scattering particles associated with greater real part and smaller imaginary part of refractive index, and higher single scattering albedo, (v) higher backscattering coefficient revealing intrusion of more aerosol particles, higher depolarization ratio indicating particles of non–spherical nature, presence of water–phase particles, more polluted smoke and dust particles, (vi) greater attenuation and poor horizontal/vertical visibility, and (vii) dominance of urban industrial/biomass burning aerosols among other aerosol types. These results have been compared with concurrent satellite products and found to be consistent. The results have been further explained with local meteorology, back–trajectory analysis and satellite rapid response images.

In this study, high-throughput sequencing (HTS) metabarcoding was applied for the surveillance of plankton communities within the southeastern (SE) Baltic Sea coastal zone. These results were compared with those from routine monitoring survey and morphological analyses. Four of five nonindigenous species found in the samples were identified exclusively by metabarcoding. All of them are considered as invasive in the Baltic Sea with reported impact on the ecosystem and biodiversity. This study indicates that, despite some current limitations, HTS metabarcoding can provide information on the presence of exotic species and advantageously complement conventional approaches, only requiring the same monitoring effort as before. Even in the currently immature status of HTS, this combination of HTS metabarcoding and observational records is recommended in the early detection of marine pests and delivery of the environmental status metrics of nonindigenous species.

Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) is an important nutrient in the aquatic environment. This study examined the influence of DON addition on the adsorption, absorption, and distribution in macromolecular forms of environmentally deleterious trace metal (Ni) in Prorocentrum donghaiense and Skeletonema costatum over eight days. Ni adsorption and absorption of two species increased with the addition of urea, while Ni adsorption and absorption of two species in the presence of humic substances (HS) decreased. Meanwhile, Ni adsorption and absorption of P. donghaiense were higher than that of S. costatum. Furthermore, Ni contents in the protein fraction of the cells, both in P. donghaiense and S. costatum, were increased with both urea and HS addition. Thus, urea and HS input could impact Ni biogeochemistry and bioavailability, and then affect the biodynamics thereafter.

Carbonaceous species in PM10 and PM2.5 samples, collected from an urban location at Ahmedabad in India during summer, were analyzed to study variability in water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) and secondary organic carbon (SOC) along with atmospheric water vapor content. A significant correlation between WSOC and SOC was found indicating major contribution of soluble organic compounds by secondary organic aerosol formation. A strong inverse dependence of WSOC and SOC on atmospheric water vapor content is observed in both PM10 and PM2.5 (at <45% relative humidity, RH) during daytime; whereas data collected during monsoon season at higher RH conditions do not exhibit such relation. Aerosol liquid water content (LWC) calculated from thermodynamic equilibrium model suggests that the decrease in secondary organic aerosol (SOA) with increase in RH occurs when LWC is absent or insignificant amount. The inverse correlation in summertime indicates possible decrease in the extent of heterogeneous photochemical oxidation of precursor volatile organic compounds on mineral aerosol surface with increase in ambient water vapor. These results have implications for SOA estimations on regional scales especially in arid and semi-arid regions where significant amount of fine mineral dust is present.

The high level of atmospheric pollution is a global problem that has taken on particular significance in recent years and will continue to grow in the near future. Air pollution directly affects the health, living organisms, vegetation, water, soil and buildings. Additionally, it moves easily even over long distances. Certain air pollutants influence the climate, cause negative processes in the protective ozone layer and contribute to the greenhouse effect. Therefore it is important to protect the air by taking actions to ensure its best possible quality. In this paper, the development of air quality policies in the United States of America and European Union was analyzed and it was shown how these legislations were implemented and also the air quality policies in these states were compared. Although the U.S. and EU have achieved significant improvements in air quality, the area of air quality management in both regions still requires a more integrated and ambitious approach.

Organic and inorganic sedimentary parameters in and off the Changjiang Estuary have been analyzed to reconstruct historical trends in eutrophication and hypoxia over the last century. The lipid biomarker concentrations in the Changjiang Estuary mud area (CEMA) indicated eutrophication accelerated after the 1970s. Meanwhile, Mo/Al indicated hypoxia has increased since 1960s. Eutrophication and hypoxia in the CEMA are primarily a result of the dramatically increased load of terrestrial nutrients from the Changjiang to the East China Sea. The lipid biomarker concentrations in the southwest Cheju Island mud area (SCIMA) showed primary production is controlled mainly by changes in regional climate and marine current. No significant hypoxia occurred in the SCIMA over the past century as indicated by Mo/Al. Therefore, geochemical indicators of eutrophication and hypoxia revealed different patterns between the CEMA and SCIMA, suggesting the role of river-derived nutrients in sustaining eutrophication and hypoxia in the CEMA since the 1960s.