Traffic-related air pollutant emissions have become a global environmental problem, especially in urban areas. The estimation of pollutant emissions is based on complex models that require the use of detailed travel-activity data, which is often unavailable and in particular, in developing countries. In order to overcome this issue, an alternative multiple-input–multiple-output general regression neural network model, based on basic socioeconomic and transport related indicators, is proposed for the simultaneous prediction of sulphur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) and particulate matter emissions at the national level. The best model, created using only six inputs, has MAPE (mean absolute percentage error) values on testing in the range of 12–15% for all studied pollutants, except NMVOC (MAPE = 21%). The obtained predictions for SOx, NH3 and PM10 emissions were in good agreement with the reported emissions (R2 ≥ 0.93), while the predictions for NOx and NMVOC are somewhat less accurate (R2 ≈ 0.85). It can be concluded that the presented ANN approach can offer a simple and relatively accurate alternative method for the estimation of traffic-related air pollutant emissions.

To determine sources of organic material in semi-enclosed Bohai Sea, samples of marine surface sediments, suspended particulates in adjacent rivers and atmospheric deposition were collected and analyzed for grain size composition, total organic carbon(TOC and POC), total nitrogen (TN and PN), and stable isotopic composition (δ13C and δ15N). Measured bulk C/N ratio (5.50–12.28), δ13C (−23.59~−19.54‰), and δ15N (2.80–8.07‰) values of surface sediment organic materials indicated a mixed source of marine and terrestrial contributions. Spatial distribution of organic C, N and their stable isotope composition indicated a land-sea gradient of organic material content and source combination. Using MixMIR model with dual isotopes, it was estimated that relative contributions of marine, riverine, and atmospheric sources to sediment mixture were 69.0%, 9.6%, and 21.4%, respectively. Our results demonstrated the advantage of Bayesian isotope mixing models over the conventional end-member mixing models for source apportionment in coastal seas with complex source origins.

A glasshouse experiment was designed to investigate the role of bacterial consortia isolated from the endosphere (CE) and rhizosphere (CR) of Arthrocnemum macrostachyum on its metal uptake capacity and tolerance in plants grown in metal polluted sediments. A. macrostachyum plants were randomly assigned to three bioaugmentation treatments (CE, CR and without inoculation) during 120days. Bioaugmentation with both bacterial consortia enhanced A. macrostachyum capacity to accumulate ions in its roots, while shoot ions concentration only increased with CE treatment. Furthermore bioaugmentation ameliorated the phytotoxicity levels, which was reflected in an increment of plant growth of 59 and 113% for shoots and 52 and 98% for roots with CE and CR treatments, respectively. This effect was supported by bacteria beneficial effect on photochemical apparatus and the modulation of its oxidative stress machinery. These findings indicated that bacteria selected from the microbiome can be claimed to improve A. macrostachyum metal remediation efficiency.

Air pollution is emerging as a significant risk factor for human health in developing countries, particularly in Iran where air pollutant concentrations are elevated. Currently, knowledge of health effects of air pollution in developing countries is limited. The objective of this study was to estimate the excess number of hospitalizations for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and the number of excess cases of Respiratory Mortality (RM) associated with daily averages levels of particulate matter less than 10 μm in diameter (PM10) in Ilam (Iran) over 1-year period (2015–2016). The excess instances of COPD and RM were estimated based on relative risk (RR) and baseline incidence (BI). The numbers of excess cases for COPD and RM during normal, dusty and Middle Eastern Dust (MED) storm days were 60 and 5, 200 and 15, and 78 and 6 persons, respectively. The results also showed that about 4.9% (95% CI: 3.0–6.8%) of hospital visits for COPD and 7.3% (CI: 4.9–19.5%) of RM could be attributed to 10 μg/m3 increase in PM10 concentration, respectively. It was found that a higher number of people were admitted to hospital when PM10 concentrations exceed 200 μg/m3 related to the MED events. Significant exposure to air pollutants, particularly during MED event, led to an excess of hospital admissions for COPD and an excess of the respiratory mortality. Several immediate actions such as strategic management of water bodies or planting of tree species in suburbs particularly bare area around the city could be effective to mitigate the impact of desert dust on respiratory illness.

In this study, we investigated the environmental impacts of scallop culture on two coastal estuaries adjacent the Bohai Sea including developing a quantitative PCR assay to assess the abundance of the bacterial pathogens Escherichia coli and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Scallop culture resulted in a significant reduction of nitrogen, Chlorophyll a, and phosphorous levels in seawater during summer. The abundance of bacteria including V. parahaemolyticus varied significantly across estuaries and breeding seasons and was influenced by nitrate as well as nutrient ratios (Si/DIN, N/P). Bacterioplankton diversity varied across the two estuaries and seasons, and was dominated by Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes. Overall, this study suggests a significant influence of scallop culture on the ecology of adjacent estuaries and offers a sensitive tool for monitoring scallop contamination.

In order to establish seawater contamination by emerging protozoan parasites, we used qPCR to molecularly characterize and evaluate the parasitic burden of Giardia duodenalis, Cryptosporidium spp., Toxoplasma gondii, and Cyclospora cayetanensis in 1255 wild bivalve mollusks collected along the Tunisian coasts. T. gondii, G. duodenalis and C. cayetanensis were detected in 6.9% (99% CI=1.6–12.2%) pools of Ruditapes decussatus. None of the samples were found positive to Cryptosporidium spp.; 6.6% pools of R. decussatus were positive for T. gondii Type I, 1.6% for G. duodenalis assemblage A, and 1.6% for the association T. gondii Type I/C. cayetanensis/G. duodenalis assemblage A. R. decussatus harbored up to 77500 oocysts/sample of T. gondii, up to 395 cysts/sample of G. duodenalis, and 526 oocysts/sample of C. cayetanensis. These results provide the first evidence that the Tunisian coasts are contaminated by zoonotic protozoan parasites that can constitute a direct or indirect risk for human health.

Ongoing bioremediation research seeks to promote naturally occurring microbial polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) degradation during and after oil spill events. However, complex relationships among functionally different microbial groups, nutrients and PAHs remain unconstrained. We conducted a surface water survey and corresponding nutrient amendment bioassays following the Texas City “Y” oil spill in Galveston Bay, Texas. Resident microbial groups, defined as either heterotrophic or autotrophic were enumerated by flow cytometry. Heterotrophic abundance was increased by oil regardless of nutrient concentrations. Contrastingly, autotrophic abundance was inhibited by oil, but this reaction was less severe when nutrient concentrations were higher. Several PAH compounds were reduced in nutrient amended treatments relative to controls suggesting nutrient enhanced microbial PAH processing. These findings provide a first-look at nutrient limitation during microbial oil processing in Galveston Bay, an important step in understanding if nutrient additions would be a useful bioremediation strategy in this and other estuarine systems.

The occurrence and seasonal variation of 24 dissolved emerging organic contaminants in the Yangtze Estuary were studied, including 12 non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals, seven sulfonamides, two macrolides and three chloramphenicols. Sulfadiazine, erythromycin, thiamphenicol and paracetamol were the primary contaminants in sulfonamides, macrolides, chloramphenicols and non-antibiotic pharmaceutical groups, respectively. Compared to the concentrations at Datong, chloramphenicols at Xuliujing were significantly higher in autumn and winter, while macrolides were lower in spring. Based on the flux estimation, approximately 37.1 tons of sulfonamides, 17.4 tons of macrolides, 79.2 tons of chloramphenicols and 14.1 tons of non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals were discharged into the Yangtze Estuary from June 2013 to May 2014. However, the total flux from the Huangpu River only represented 5% of the total. The pharmaceutical sources were speculated on by analyzing the seasonal variations in pharmaceutical concentrations and fluxes at various sites. Both environmental and social factors might affect the fluxes.

The dearth of long-time series hampers the measurement of the ecosystem change that followed the global marine climate shift of the 1980–90s. The sessile communities of Portofino Promontory reefs (Ligurian Sea, NW Mediterranean) have been discontinuously studied since the 1950s. Collating information from various sources, three periods of investigations have been distinguished: 1) 1950–70s; 2) 1980–90s; 3) 2000–10s. A cooler phase in time 1 was followed by a rapid warming in time 2, to stabilize at about 0.5°C higher in time 3. Human pressure grew impressively, especially after the establishment of a MPA in 1999. Multivariate analyses evidenced a major change of community composition in time 2. Some species disappeared or got rarer, many found refuge at depth, and among the newcomers there were recently introduced alien species. This study demonstrated the importance of descriptive historical data to understand magnitude and pattern of change in the long term evolution of marine ecosystems.

Contamination of sandy beaches of the Baltic Sea in Kaliningrad region is evaluated on the base of surveys carried out from June 2015 to January 2016. Quantity of macro/meso/microplastic objects in the upper 2cm of the sandy sediments of the wrack zone at 13 sampling sites all along the Russian coast is reported. Occurrence of paraffin and amber pieces at the same sites is pointed out. Special attention is paid to microplastics (range 0.5–5mm): its content ranges between 1.3 and 36.3 items per kg dry sediment. The prevailing found type is foamed plastic. No sound differences in contamination are discovered between beaches with high and low anthropogenic load. Mean level of contamination is of the same order of magnitude as has been reported by other authors for the Baltic Sea beaches.