The purpose of this paper is to integrate the concepts of ecosystem services and disservices when assessing the efficacy of using urban forests for mitigating pollution. A brief review of the literature identifies some pollution mitigation ecosystem services provided by urban forests. Existing ecosystem services definitions and typologies from the economics and ecological literature are adapted and applied to urban forest management and the concepts of ecosystem disservices from natural and semi-natural systems are discussed. Examples of the urban forest ecosystem services of air quality and carbon dioxide sequestration are used to illustrate issues associated with assessing their efficacy in mitigating urban pollution. Development of urban forest management alternatives that mitigate pollution should consider scale, contexts, heterogeneity, management intensities and other social and economic co-benefits, tradeoffs, and costs affecting stakeholders and urban sustainability goals.

The distribution and bioaccumulation of steroidal and phenolic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) were studied in various tissues of wild fish species from Dianchi Lake, China. In muscle tissue, 4-tert-octylphenol, 4-cumylphenol, 4-nonlyphenol and bisphenol A were detected in fish from each sampling site, with maximal concentrations of 4.6, 4.4, 18.9 and 83.5ng/g dry weight (dw), respectively. Steroids (estrone, 17β-estradiol 17α-ethynylestradiol and estriol) were found at lower levels (<11.3ng/g dw) and less frequently in muscle samples. The highest concentrations of steroids and phenols were found in liver, followed by those in gill and the lowest concentration was found in muscle. The field bioconcentration factors (BCFs) of phenols were calculated in fish species ranged from 18 to 97. Moreover, the measured tissue concentrations were utilized in order to estimate water concentration of steroids (4.4–18.0ng/L). These results showed that steroidal and phenolic EDCs were likely ubiquitous contaminants in wild fish.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of commercially available engineered iron oxide nanoparticles coated with a surfactant (ENPFₑ₋ₛᵤᵣf) on effluent water quality from a lab-scale sequencing batch reactor as a model secondary biological wastewater treatment. Results showed that ∼8.7% of ENPFₑ₋ₛᵤᵣf applied were present in the effluent stream. The stable presence of ENPFₑ₋ₛᵤᵣf was confirmed by analyzing the mean particle diameter and iron concentration in the effluent. Consequently, aqueous ENPFₑ₋ₛᵤᵣf deteriorated the effluent water quality at a statistically significant level (p < 0.05) with respect to soluble chemical oxygen demand, turbidity, and apparent color. This implied that ENPFₑ₋ₛᵤᵣf would be introduced into environmental receptors through the treated effluent and could potentially impact them.

The first survey of persistent organic pollutant (POP) concentrations in air across several Indian agricultural regions was conducted in 2006–2007. Passive samplers comprising polyurethane foam (PUF) disks were deployed on a quarterly basis at seven stations in agricultural regions, one urban site and one background site. The project was conducted as a sub-project of the Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling (GAPS) Network. In addition to revealing new information on air concentrations of several organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the study has demonstrated the feasibility of conducting regional-scale monitoring for POPs in India using PUF disk samplers. The following analytes were detected with relatively high concentrations in air (mean for 2006 and 2007, pg/m³): α- and γ-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) (292 and 812, respectively); endosulfan I and II (2770 and 902, respectively); p,p′-DDE and p,p′-DDT (247 and 931, respectively); and for the sum of 48 PCBs, 12,100 (including a site with extremely high air concentrations in 2007) and 972 (when excluding data for this site).

The concentrations of heavy metals (Cr, Cd, Hg, Cu, Zn, Pb and As) in the water, sediment, and fish were investigated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China. Potential ecological risk analysis of sediment heavy metal concentrations indicated that six sites in the middle reach, half of the sites in the lower reach, and two sites in lakes, posed moderate or considerable ecological risk. Health risk analysis of individual heavy metals in fish tissue indicated safe levels for the general population and for fisherman but, in combination, there was a possible risk in terms of total target hazard quotients. Correlation analysis and PCA found that heavy metals (Hg, Cd, Pb, Cr, Cu, and Zn) may be mainly derived from metal processing, electroplating industries, industrial wastewater, and domestic sewage. Hg may also originate from coal combustion. Significant positive correlations between TN and As were observed.

Critical loads are widely used in the effects-based assessment of emission reduction policies. While the impacts of acidification have diminished, there is increasing concern regarding the effects of nitrogen deposition on terrestrial ecosystems. In this context much attention has been focussed on empirical critical loads as well as simulations with linked geochemistry–vegetation models. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to adapt the widely used simple mass balance approach. This approach has the well-established benefit of easy regional applicability, while incorporating specified critical chemical criteria to protect specified receptors. As plant occurrence/biodiversity is related to both the nutrient and acidity status of an ecosystem, a single abiotic factor (chemical criterion) is not sufficient. Rather than an upper limit for deposition (i.e., critical load), linked nutrient nitrogen and acidity chemical criteria for plant occurrence result in an ‘optimal’ nitrogen and sulphur deposition envelope.

A new vegetation modeling concept for Building and Environmental Aerodynamics wind tunnel investigations was developed. The modeling concept is based on fluid dynamical similarity aspects and allows the small-scale modeling of various kinds of vegetation, e.g. field crops, shrubs, hedges, single trees and forest stands. The applicability of the modeling concept was validated in wind tunnel pollutant dispersion studies. Avenue trees in urban street canyons were modeled and their implications on traffic pollutant dispersion were investigated. The dispersion experiments proved the modeling concept to be practicable for wind tunnel studies and suggested to provide reliable concentration results. Unfavorable effects of trees on pollutant dispersion and natural ventilation in street canyons were revealed. Increased traffic pollutant concentrations were found in comparison to the tree-free reference case.

The effects of TiO₂ nanoparticles on the transport of Cu through four different soil columns were studied. For two soils (HB and DX), TiO₂ nanoparticles acted as a Cu carrier and facilitated the transport of Cu. For a third soil (BJ) TiO₂ nanoparticles also facilitated Cu transport but to a much lesser degree, but for a fourth soil (HLJ) TiO₂ nanoparticles retarded the transport of Cu. Linear correlation analysis indicated that soil properties rather than sorption capacities for Cu primary governed whether TiO₂ nanoparticles-facilitated Cu transport. The TiO₂-associated Cu of outflow in the Cu-contaminated soil columns was significantly positively correlated with soil pH and negatively correlated with CEC and DOC. During passage through the soil columns 46.6–99.9% of Cu initially adsorbed onto TiO₂ could be “stripped” from nanoparticles depending on soil, where Cu desorption from TiO₂ nanoparticles increased with decreasing flow velocity and soil pH.

Compound contamination and toxicity interaction necessitate the development of models that have an insight into the combined toxicity of chemicals. In this paper, a novel and simple model dependent only on the mixture information (MIM), was developed. Firstly, the concentration–response data of seven groups of binary and multi-component (pseudo-binary) mixtures with different mixture ratios to Vibrio qinghaiensis sp.-Q67 were determined using the microplate toxicity analysis. Then, a desirable non-linear function was selected to fit the data. It was found that there are good linear correlations between the location parameter (α) and mixture ratio (p) of a component and between the steepness (β) and p. Based on the correlations, a mixture toxicity model independent of pure component toxicity profiles was built. The model can be used to accurately estimate the toxicities of the seven groups of mixtures, which greatly simplified the predictive procedure of the combined toxicity.

Soils were sampled in three types of wetlands from the young (A) and old (B) reclaimed regions of the Pearl River Estuary. They were analyzed for total concentrations of heavy metals to investigate their distributions and pollution levels in both regions. Results showed that most heavy metals in ditch and riparian wetlands did not significantly differ from those in reclaimed wetlands in A region, while significantly lower for Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in reclaimed wetlands in B region, suggesting higher effects of long-term reclamation. Iron, Cr and Cu were identified as metal pollutants of primary concern and had higher contributions to the total toxic units compared to other metals. Almost all metals exceeded their lowest effect levels and Fe and Cr even exceeded the severe effect levels. Multivariate analysis shows that Fe and Mn are controlled by parent rocks and other metals mainly originate from anthropogenic source.