To explore high-resolution temporal variation characteristics of atmospheric metal elements concentration and more accurate pollution sources apportionment, online monitoring of metal elements in PM₂.₅ with 1-h time resolution was conducted in Beijing from August 22, 2018 to August 21, 2019. Concentration of 18 elements varied between detection limit (ranging from 0.1 to 100 ng/m³) and nearly 25 μg/m³. Si, Fe, Ca, K and Al represented major elements and accounted for 93.47% of total concentration during the study period. Compared with previous studies, airborne metal pollution in Beijing has improved significantly which thanks to strict comprehensive control measures under the Clean Air Action Plan since 2013. Almost all elements present higher concentrations on weekdays than weekends, while concentrations of elements associated with dust sources during holidays are higher than those in working days after the morning peak, and there is almost no concentration difference in the evening peak period. Soil and dust, vehicle non-exhaust emissions, biomass, industrial processes and fuel combustion were apportioned as main sources of atmospheric metal pollution, accounting for 63.6%, 18.4%, 16.8%, 1.0% and 0.18%, respectively. Furthermore, main occurrence season of metal pollution is judged by characteristic radar chart of varied metal elements proposed for the first time in this study, for example, fuel combustion type pollution mainly occurs in winter and spring. Results of 72-h backward trajectory analysis of air masses showed that, except for local emissions, atmospheric metal pollution in Beijing is also affected by regional transport from Inner Mongolia, Hebei, the Bohai Sea and Heilongjiang.

Hollow porous molecularly imprinted polymers (HPMIPs) are identified as promising adsorbents with many advantageous properties (e.g., large number of imprinted cavities, highly accessible binding sites, controllable pore structure, and fast mass transfer). Because of such properties, HPMIPs can exhibit improved binding capacity and kinetics to make analyte molecules readily interact with a greater number of recognition sites on the imprinted shell. This review highlights the synthesis and utility of HPMIPs as adsorbents to cover diverse targets of interest (e.g., endocrine disrupting chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and heavy metal ions). The overall potential of HPMIPs is thus discussed in the context of analytical chemistry with particular focus on the efficient extraction of trace-level targets from complex matrices.

Environmental degradation of rivers in agricultural landscapes is typically caused by multiple co-occurring stressors, but how interactions among stressors affect freshwater ecosystems is poorly understood. Therefore, we investigated the sensitivity and specificity of several measures of benthic macroinvertebrate community response to the individual and combined effects of the pesticide sulfoxaflor (SFX), increased sand sedimentation and elevated nutrients using outdoor recirculating mesocosms. Among the single stressor treatments, nutrients had no observable impact and sand only affected one community response measure compared to controls. High SFX levels had the largest effects on benthic macroinvertebrate communities, negatively affecting six of seven macroinvertebrate response measures. Sulfoxaflor had similar adverse effects on biota when in combination with sand and nutrients in the multi-stressor treatment, suggesting that generally SFX has overwhelming and pervasive effects irrespective of the presence of the other stressors. In contrast to SFX, elevated nutrients had no detectable effect on macroinvertebrate communities, likely as a consequence of nutrients being rapidly taken up by bacteria rather than by benthic algae. Elevated sand sedimentation increased the negative effects of SFX on sediment sensitive taxa, but generally had limited biological effects. This was despite the levels of sedimentation in our treatments being at concentrations that have caused large impacts in other studies. This research points to direct and rapid toxic effects of SFX on stream macroinvertebrates, contrasting with effects of the other stressors. This study emphasises that pesticide effects could be misattributed to other common freshwater stressors, potentially focussing restoration actions on a stressor of lesser importance.

This research determines the intertemporal relationships caused by the coal, oil, and natural gas consumption in the carbon dioxide emission by the G7 countries from 1965 to 2018. Auto-regressive and Distributed Lags models and Bound test were used to detect cointegration and understand the dynamic effect. Due to structural breaks occurred in the variables, two dummy variables for the periods of breaks, 1978 and 1990 were incorporated respectively. Positive causality was identified, in the sense that the consumption of fossil fuels provides an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Short-term elasticities indicate that an increase of 1 percentage point in the consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas will cause, respectively, an increase of 0.4823%, 0.3140%, and 0.1717% in carbon dioxide emissions. In the long run, the increase of 1 percentage point in the consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas will cause, respectively, an increase of 0.4924%, 0.2692%, and 0.1829% in carbon dioxide emissions. The error correction model (ECM = −0.4739) indicates that 47.39% of a shock in the carbon dioxide emissions variable is resolved in one year and after 2 years, carbon dioxide emissions return to long term equilibrium.

Using Fe(II) salt as the precipitant in heterotrophic denitrification achieves improved TP removal, and enhancement in denitrification was often observed. This study aimed to obtain a better understanding of Fe(II)-enhanced denitrification with sufficient carbon source supply. Laboratory-scale experiments were conducted in SBRs with or without Fe(II) addition. Remarkably improved TP removal was experienced. TP removal efficiency in Fe(II) adding reactor was 85.8 ± 3.4%; whereas, that in the reactor without Fe(II) addition was 31.1 ± 2.8%. Besides improved TP removal, better TN removal efficiency (94.1 ± 1.1%) were recorded when Fe(II) was added, and that in the reactor without Fe(II) addition was 89 ± 0.8%. The specific denitrification rate were observed increase by 12.6% when Fe(II) was added. Further microbial analyses revealed increases in the abundances of typical denitrifiers (i.e. Niastella, Opitutus, Dechloromonas, Ignavibacterium, Anaeromyxobacter, Pedosphaera, and Myxococcus). Their associated denitrifying genes, narG, nirS, norB, and nosZ, were observed had 14.2%, 19.4%, 21.6%, and 9.9% elevation, respectively. Such enhancement in denitrification shall not be due to nitrate-dependent ferrous oxidation, which prevails in organic-deficient environments. In an environment with a continuous supply of Fe(II) and plenty of carbon sources, a cycle of denitrifying enzyme activity enhancement in the presence of Fe(II) facilitating nitrogen substrate utilization, stimulating denitrifier metabolism and growth, elevating denitrifying genes abundance, and increasing denitrifying enzymes expression were thought to be responsible for the Fe(II)-enhanced heterotrophic denitrification. Fe(II) salt is often a less expensive precipitant and has recently become attractive for TP removal in wastewater. The findings of this study solidify previous observation of enhancement of both TP and TN removal by adding Fe(II) in denitrification, and would be helpful for developing cost-effective pollutant removal processes.

The occurrence and distribution of cyclic and linear siloxanes were investigated in South Korean river water and sediment, with a special focus on crucian carp tissues, to evaluate the residual status and potential bioaccumulation of siloxanes. The total siloxanes median concentrations observed in this study were 1495 ng/L in river water, 39.2 ng/g-dry weight [dw] in sediment, and 41.7 ng/g-wet weight [ww] in crucian carp muscle. Cyclic siloxanes (D3–D6) were predominant in all matrices, and D5 (mean: > 81%) was more abundant in biota tissues than in river water (30%) and sediment (26%) samples. Specifically, positive correlations between D5 concentrations and crucian carp sizes (p < 0.01, Spearman) as well as the relatively high estimated biota-sediment accumulation factor value of D5 (D5: 2.31), suggest the high bioaccumulative property of D5 in biota. However, no bioaccumulation potentials were observed for D3, D4, D6, and L3–L17 in this field-scale study. The distributions of major linear siloxanes (L7–L14) in crucian carp gills (17%) and gonads (21%) were higher than in other tissues (brain, 9.6%; liver, 2.6%; muscle, 1.5%). Moreover, relatively high tissue/plasma ratios were observed for linear siloxanes (L7–L10: 1.79–2.12) compared to cyclic siloxanes (D4–D6: 0.829–1.18) (p < 0.01, Mann Whitney U test), which indicated the higher transportability of linear siloxanes to fish tissues than cyclic siloxanes.

Substantial heterogeneities have been found in previous estimations of the risk from dietary exposures to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in China, mainly due to spatiotemporal variations. To comprehensively evaluate the dietary risks of POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention, more than 27,580 data records from 753 reports published over the last three decades were examined. Respectively, for various food categories, the results obtained for the range of mean concentrations of POPs are as follows: total dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs: 1.4–27.1 μg/kg), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs: 1.8–29.3 μg/kg), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs: 0.046–2.82 μg/kg), polychorinated biphenyls (PCBs: 0.05–7.57 μg/kg), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD&Fs: 2.9–210 pg toxic equivalent (TEQ)/kg), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA: 0.02–0.97 μg/kg), perfluoroctane sulfonate (PFOS: 0.00082–2.76 μg/kg) and short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs: 64–348.92 μg/kg). Temporal decreasing trends were observed for DDTs, HCHs, PBDEs, PCDD&Fs, and PFOA, with no significant change for other POPs. Meanwhile, the estimated daily intake for adults were 75.2 ± 43.6 ng/kg/day for DDTs, 123 ± 87 ng/kg/day for HCHs, 0.37 ± 0.17 pg TEQ/kg/day for PCDD&Fs, 17.8 ± 9.5 ng/kg/day for PCBs, 3.3 ± 1.8 ng/kg/day for PBDEs, 3.6 ± 1.9 ng/kg/day for PFOA, 3.3 ± 2.0 ng/kg/day for PFOS, and 2.5 ± 1.6 μg/kg/day for SCCPs. Furthermore, non-carcinogenic risks were the highest for PCBs (0.89) and PCDD&Fs (0.53), followed by PFOA (0.18), PFOS (0.17), HCHs (0.062), SCCPs (0.025), DDTs (0.0075), and PBDEs (0.00047). These findings illustrated that exposure to POPs declined due to the control policies implemented in China, while the cumulative risk of POPs was still higher than 1, indicating continuous efforts are required to mitigate associated contamination.

The assessment of the distribution and composition of microlitter in the sea is a great challenge. Biological indicators can be an irreplaceable tool since they measure microlitter levels in their environments in a way that is virtually impossible to replicate by direct physical measurements. Furthermore, trends can provide policymakers with statistically robust analysis. We looked into the capacity of multiple fish species to describe the distribution and composition of microlitter vertically across different compartments of the water column. A total of 502 individuals from six selected species (Scomber scombrus, Oblada melanura, Spicara smaris, Boops boops, Merluccius merluccius and Mullus barbatus) were collected on the western side of Sardinia island and allocated to three compartments: surface, mid-water and bottom. The species of the surface exhibited a higher frequency of occurrence (41.89%) of microlitter ingestion, compared to those of the mid-water and bottom (19.60%; 22.58%). A significant difference in the average number of ingested microlitter was found between the surface and the bottom compartment. All the microlitter fragments found were analysed through Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The comparison of the expected buoyancies of the polymers identified puth faith in the allocation of the species to the respective compartments. Therefore, considering the Marine Strategy Framework Directive objective, this approach could be useful in assessing microlitter distribution and composition vertically across the water column.

Phosphorus (P) cycling present in sediments associated with iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and sulfur (S) geochemical processes may cause secondary pollution in overlying water. Understanding the mechanisms of P release from sediments should help to restore water quality. This study used the diffusive gradients in thin film (DGT) technique to investigate the seasonal variation in the lability, remobilization mechanisms, and release characteristics of sediment P in the uncontaminated Xizhi River and the severely contaminated Danshui River, South China. P accumulation in sediments contributed to higher DGT-labile P concentrations in contaminated reaches, and the highest labile P concentrations were generally observed in summer season at each site. The significant positive relationships (p < 0.05) between labile Fe and P confirmed the Fe–P coupling release mechanism in uncontaminated sediments. Stronger relationships between labile Mn and P at contaminated sites indicated that Mn oxides played an important role in P remobilization. However, sulfate reduction associated with microbial activities (crucial genera: Desulfobulbus, Desulfomicrobium and Desulforhabdus) was considered to decouple the Fe & Mn–P cycling relationship, promoting P release at contaminated sites. The effluxes of sediment P were much higher in the Danshui River (mean 0.132 mg cm⁻²·d⁻¹) than in the Xizhi River (mean 0.038 mg cm⁻²·d⁻¹). And hot season led to growth in P effluxes that was much greater in contaminated river.

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) may be introduced to agricultural soil through the land application of cattle manure. During a rainfall event, manure-borne ARGs may infiltrate into subsurface soil and leach into groundwater. The objective of this study was to characterize and model the vertical transport of manure-borne ARGs through soil following the land application of beef cattle manure on soil surface. In this study, soil column experiments were conducted to evaluate the influence of manure application on subsurface transport of four ARGs: erm(C), erm(F), tet(O) and tet(Q). An attachment-detachment model with the decay of ARGs in the soil was used to simulate the breakthrough of ARGs in leachates from the control column (without manure) and treatment (with manure) soil columns. Results showed that the first-order attachment coefficient (kₐ) was five to six orders of magnitude higher in the treatment column than in the control column. Conversely, the first-order detachment and decay coefficients (kd and μₛ) were not significantly changed due to manure application. These findings suggest that in areas where manure is land-applied, some manure-borne bacteria-associated ARGs will be attached to the soil, instead of leaching to groundwater in near terms.