The importance of air pollution monitoring networks in urban areas is well known because of their miscellaneous applications. At the beginning of the 1990s, Berlin had more than 40 particulate matter monitoring stations, whereas, by 2013, there were only 12 stations. In this study, a new and free–of–charge methodology for the densifying of the PM10 monitoring network of Berlin is presented. It endeavors to find the non–linear relationship between the hourly PM10 concentration of the still–operating PM10 monitoring stations and the shut–down stations by using the Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and, consequently, the results of the shut–down stations were simulated and re–constructed. However, input–variables selection is a pre–requisite for any ANN simulation, and hence a new fuzzy–heuristic input selection has been developed and joined to the ANN for the simulation. The hourly PM10 concentrations of the 20 shut–down stations were simulated and re–constructed. The mean error, bias and absolute error of the simulations were 27.7%, –0.03 (μg/m3), and 7.4 (μg/m3), respectively. Then, the simulated hourly PM10 concentration data were converted to a daily scale and the performance of ANN models which were developed for the simulation of the daily PM10 data were evaluated (correlation coefficient >0.94). These appropriate results imply the ability of the developed input selection technique to make the appropriate selection of the input variables, and it can be introduced as a new input variable selection for the ANN. In addition, a dense PM10 monitoring network was developed by the combination of both the re–constructed (20 stations) and the current (12 stations) stations. This dense monitoring network was applied in order to determine a reliable mean annual PM10 concentration in the different areas in Berlin in 2012.

PM1.0 and PM2.5 samples are collected in Lin'an, a Regional Atmosphere Background Station in spring (1–30 April), summer (1–31 July), autumn (1–31 October) and winter (1–31 January) in 2011 to investigate the seasonal characteristics of aerosol pollution in the Yangtze River Delta region. The daily concentrations of water-soluble ions are 24.6 ± 12.0 μg m−3 and 36.6 ± 23.6 μg m−3 in PM1.0 and PM2.5, respectively. SO42−, NO3− and NH4+ are the dominant contributors of water-soluble ions, accounting for 78.6% (spring), 83.5% (summer), 80.6% (autumn) and 81.9% (winter) of the total ions measured in PM1.0 and 80.2% (spring), 85.4% (summer), 78.9% (autumn) and 78.9% (winter) in PM2.5. Seasonal variation is observed, with the lowest ions concentration in winter and the highest one in summer. Nevertheless, the crustal elements (e.g., Ca, Mg, Al, Fe, etc.) have the highest concentrations in spring. Most of the pollution species (Sb, Se, Cd, Pb, As and Zn) have enrichment factor values higher than 100, implying a strong possibility that the air pollution originates from anthropogenic sources and have no evident seasonal variation. The high concentration of K+ and biomass burning potassium (K+BB) in PM2.5 in autumn and winter and its good correlation with black carbon (r = 0.74) suggest that the most severe pollution derives from biomass burning. Factor analysis results indicate that road dust, combustion processes (biomass burning and fossil fuels combustion), sea salt from marine sources and industrial activities are main sources of aerosol pollution in Lin'an.

A systematic study was conducted on the distribution characteristics of heavy metals and on associated influencing factors in sediments off the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula, China, based on the results of a heavy metals analysis on 157 surface sediment samples from coastal waters of the study area and on 46 samples from surrounding rivers flowing into the sea. An environmental quality assessment of heavy metals was performed using the Nemerow index. The results show that the distribution characteristics of sediment heavy metals in coastal waters outside of Qingdao can be divided into three classes: (1) Class I – Cr, Cu and Zn, with high-value areas extending from the northeast to the southwest in a banded or tongue-like pattern; (2) Class II – As, Cd and Pb, with high-value areas mainly distributed off the southeastern coast of Mt. Lao; and (3) Class III – Hg only, with high-value areas mainly in the northern area of Jiaozhou Bay. Integrated assessment based on the Nemerow index reveals that heavy metals pollution has occurred in surface sediments in a number of coastal water areas outside of Qingdao. This pollution is mainly found off the southeastern coast of Mt. Lao and in the northeastern section of Jiaozhou Bay. Results show that grain size of surface sediments, surrounding rivers and human activities are the main reasons for the element distribution pattern.

In order to understand the effect of different culture systems on Cd and Pb accumulation, suspended long-line and bottom cultures of Argopecten purpuratus were conducted during January until April 2010 (120days). The Cd tissue levels were the highest at the middle of the experiment (30-d till 70-d) for suspended-cultured individuals, while bottom-cultured individuals showed an increasing trend. Gonad Pb levels were also higher during the same period for all cultures, while adductor muscle exhibited no considerable variations. Cd and Pb tissue concentrations were mainly greater in deeper cultures. There were no significant differences in Cd and Pb accumulation between individual sizes. The Cd and Pb levels in edible tissue (gonad+adductor muscle) did not exceed the EU and FDA maximum levels. Based on the target hazard quotient (THQ) and the provisional tolerance weekly intake (PTWI), no risk (THQ<1 and %PTWI<30) was found for human consumption.

Near-road measurements for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) using passive air samplers were collected weekly in traffic exposure zones (TEZs) in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina (USA) during Fall 2014. Land use regression (LUR) analysis and pairwise comparisons of TEZs showed NO2 concentrations were associated with TEZs. Greater NO2 levels occurred in delay, high volume, and bus route sections versus higher signal light density, urbanized, and “remainder of study” areas. Comparison of near-road passively sampled NO2 concentrations by TEZ agreed with previous real-time on-road comparisons for NO2 in these TEZs.

An important priority for any organism is to maintain internal cellular homeostasis including acid–base balance. Yet, the molecular level impacts of changing environmental conditions, such as low pH, remain uncharacterised. Herein, we isolate partial Na+/H+exchangers (NHE), carbonic anhydrase (CA), and calmodulin (CaM) genes from a polychaete, Platynereis dumerilii and investigate their relative expression in acidified seawater conditions. mRNA expression of NHE was significantly down-regulated after 1h and up-regulated after 7days under low pH treatment (pH 7.8), indicating changes in acid–base transport. Furthermore, the localisation of NHE expression was also altered. A trend of down regulation in CA after 1h was also observed, suggesting a shift in the CO2 and HCO3− balance. No change in CaM expression was detected after 7days exposure to acidified seawater. This study provides insight into the molecular level changes taking place following exposure to acidified seawater in a non-calcifying, ubiquitous, organism.

Abundance and composition of anthropogenic marine debris were assessed on the basis of six bottom trawl surveys conducted on the continental slope off Iwate Prefecture, Pacific coast of northern Japan, in 2003, 2004 and 2011, and the temporal changes due to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 evaluated. In 2003 and 2004, 54–94 items km−2 of marine debris, dominated by sea-base sourced items mainly comprising fishing gear and related items from adjacent fishing grounds on the continental shelf, were quantified. In the post-earthquake period, the density increased drastically to 233–332 items km−2, due to an increase in land-base sourced items generated by the tsunami. However, a major increase in abundance after the disaster, compared to the total amount of tsunami debris swept into the sea, was not found. Additional sources of land-based debris from the adjacent continental shelf are suggested in the present waters.

Hydrogen sulfide generated in eutrophic marine sediment is harmful for living organisms. It is therefore necessary to remove hydrogen sulfide from the sediment to restore benthic ecosystems. Previous studies revealed that granulated coal ash, which is a by-product of coal thermal electric power stations, could remove and oxidize hydrogen sulfide. In this study, we propose a simplified simulation model to estimate the hydrogen sulfide removal efficiency of granulated coal ash. Hydrogen sulfide concentrations in eutrophic marine sediment pore water with and without the application of granulated coal ash were calculated by the proposed model, and the outputs were compared with semi-field or field observation data. The model outputs reproduced the observed data well. Using the proposed model outputs, we suggest an optimum application dosage of granulated coal ash for remediating eutrophic marine sediment.

The Estuary of Bahía Blanca (EBB), Argentina, is an important wetland under intense sewage pollution. We investigated the occurrence of Clostridium perfringens (CP) in populations of two benthic crabs (Neohelice granulata and Cyrtograpsus angulatus) and in sediment from the EBB. CP was found in 49.1% of the crabs and all of the isolates were identified as type A. The alpha (cpa) and enterotoxin (cpe) encoding genes were identified. Genetic analyses identified 13 novel sequence types, and found no clustering among isolates, suggesting that CP is not part of the crabs’ commensal flora. CP carriage was 51 times more likely in crabs from the area nearest sewage outfalls compared with crabs from a reference site. Our in vitro experiments suggest that the carriage of CP in crabs is transient. The use of these benthic crabs as monitoring organisms of sewage pollution in coastal habitats is proposed.

Sterols and hydrocarbons were determined in the surface sediments from the transitional environment between Paranaguá Bay and the shallow continental shelf in the South Atlantic to assess the sources of organic matter (OM) and the contamination status of an area exposed to multiple anthropogenic inputs. Total aliphatic hydrocarbon concentrations were less than 10μgg−1, which is typical of unpolluted sediments, and related to recent inputs from higher terrestrial plants. Total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon ranged from<DL to 14.41ngg−1 (dry weight), which was predominantly derived from combustion with non-detectable levels occurring in 65% of the samples. Sterols typically related to marine sources predominated in the analysed sediments. Hence, the study area was protected from human activity. The relative absence of anthropogenic input and OM preservation clearly indicate that the organic markers analysed can be used to investigate the biogenic input of sedimentary OM in the study area.