This paper aims to identify the concentrations of PAHs in the sediments of four coastal zones in Lebanon and determine their possible sources and effects. For each region (Tripoli, Jounieh, Dora, and Tyre), sampling, lyophilization, Soxhlet extraction, rotary evaporation, and gas chromatography were performed on 11, 10, 7, and 11 samples, respectively. The total PAHs concentrations ranged from 1.22 to 731.93μg/kg dry weight. The lowest concentrations were found in Tyre and the highest in Dora and Jounieh. The level of PAHs was classified as low to moderate and their source was mainly pyrogenic.

The deterioration of dissolved oxygen conditions in the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) in summer has recently attracted considerable-scientific and political-attention. This paper documents the development, calibration, and verification of a coupled three-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model for the PRE. A comparison of the model's performance against field observations indicated that the model is capable of reproducing key hydrodynamic and water quality characteristics of the estuary within an acceptable range of accuracy. Furthermore, a scenario analysis showed that the extent of the hypoxic zone responds differently to changes in the river discharge at different inlets. Moreover, the hypoxic zone also changes in response to variations in the southwest wind in summer; specifically, a larger hypoxic zone develops as southwest winds blow in a more southward direction. However, the hypoxic conditions are much more sensitive to changes in the wind speed than changes in the wind direction.

As land–ocean interaction zones, mangrove systems receive substantial polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from sewage and combustion of fossil fuel. In this study, we investigated the relationship between dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) availability and degradation rate of phenanthrene, a typical PAH compound, in mangrove plant-sediment systems, using Avicennia marina as a model plant. After 50day incubation, phenanthrene removal ratios in sediments ranged from 53.8% to 97.2%. In non-rhizosphere sediment, increasing DIN accessibility increased microbial biomass and total microbial activity, while enhancements in population size of phenanthrene degradation bacteria (PDB) and phenanthrene degradation rates were insignificant. In contrast, the presence of excessive DIN in rhizosphere sediment resulted in a significantly large number of PDB, leading to a rapid dissipation rate of phenanthrene. The differences in degradation rates and abundances of degrader in sediment may be explained by the enhanced root activity due to the elevation in DIN accessibility.

In this study, macrobenthic diversity data were collected from intertidal habitats of island wetlands in Yangtze Estuary before and after reclamation. Three survey regions based on habitat features were investigated: protected region, normal region, and self-restored region. The pattern of diversity variation showed a sharp decrease in reclamation sites and an obvious increase in vegetated sites of the self-restored region before and after reclamation. A declining trend in habitat health was observed in reclamation sites, but the degree of perturbation was relatively weaker in protected region than in normal region. The vegetated site showed a better self-restoration of biodiversity than the bald site. These results suggest that reclamation may have a negative influence on biodiversity and habitat health status in the intertidal wetland. Also, there is a possibility of self-restoration in tidal flats disturbed by reclamation and the resistance effect in nature reserve may reduce the disturbances resulting from reclamation.

In order to characterize the state of oil spill research and describe how the field has changed since its inception in the 1960s and since the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, we examined approximately 10% of oil spill literature (1255 of over 11,000 publications) published from 1968 to 2015. We find that, despite its episodic nature, oil spill research is a rapidly expanding field with a growth rate faster than that of science as a whole. There is a massive post-Deepwater Horizon shift of research attention to the Gulf of Mexico, from 2% of studies in 2004–2008 to 61% in 2014–2015, thus ranking Deepwater Horizon as the most studied oil spill. There is, however, a longstanding gap in research in that only 1% of studies deal with the effects of oil spills on human health. These results provide a better understanding of the current trends and gaps within the field.

In this study, Reverse phase dispersive liquid–liquid micro extraction (RP-DLLME) technique have been successfully developed to preconcentrate trace amount of phenol from sediment samples as a prior step to its derivatization with 4-aminoantipyrine and enhanced determination by UV–Vis spectrophotometry after primary ultrasonic extraction. In this procedure, 50μL 0.7M NaOH solution was chosen as extraction solvent and other factors including pH, extraction time, concentration of 4-aminoantipyrine, type and volume of dispersive solvents were optimized. Under selected conditions, the limit of detection, the linearity range, relative standard deviation and enrichment factor of method were obtained 15μg·kg−1, 50–1800μg·kg−1, 4.8% (n=10) and 33, respectively. Finally, using the high sensitivity, low organic solvent consumption and waste generation method, total phenol content in marine sediments from several locations in Chabahar Bay (southeast Iran) was estimated at 55.8–73.2μg·kg−1.

Knowledge of the levels of pollutants to which the occupants of a residential home are exposed is important, because of the potential adverse effect of the pollutants on the occupants' health. This study presents the first indoor-to-outdoor ratio (IOR) prediction models for CO2, NO2, and the lung-deposited nanoparticles (defined as particulate matters of 10–1000 nm in diameter). The IORs of CO2, NO2, and the lung-deposited nanoparticles (LDN) were measured in 20 residential homes in Seoul, South Korea, and meteorological information, building characteristics, and information relating to occupants' indoor activities were collected as predictor candidates. A correlation analysis and a multistep multivariate linear regression analysis were performed to develop the IOR models. Based on the analysis, the selected predictors of the IOR for a home are the number of occupants, the type of stove, and the number of cooking activities for CO2, the temperature and number of cooking activities for NO2, and the number of occupants and floor level on which the home is located for LDN. The accuracies of the models were examined in terms of R2, and were found to be 0.70, 0.54, and 0.79 for CO2, NO2, and LDN models, respectively.

In this study, we analyzed the relationship between concentration of metals in the host-parasite system (cod - acanthocephalan Echinorhynchus gadi) and Fulton's condition factor (FCF) of the host. The relationship between metal (Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Pb, Sr, Zn) concentrations in E. gadi and cod tissues was expressed as a bioconcentration factor (BCF), the ratio of the concentration in the parasite tissue to that in host tissues. Acanthocephalans accumulated mainly toxic metals (Cd, Pb), as well as Sr, Ca, Na. Cadmium showed the highest bioconcentration in parasites (BCF >200) compared to fish muscle. Significant negative correlation was detected between FCF and the concentration of Cd and Hg in cod liver. In contrast, FCF was positively correlated with the concentration of Hg in acanthocephalan tissues.

The present study is focused on assessing the growth and hydrocarbon-degrading capability of the psychrophilic strain Oleispira antarctica RB-8T. This study considered six hydrocarbon mixtures that were tested for 22days at two different cultivation temperatures (4 and 15°C). During the incubation period, six sub-aliquots of each culture at different times were processed for total bacterial abundance and GC–FID (gas chromatography–flame ionization detection) hydrocarbon analysis.Results from DNA extraction and DAPI (4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) staining showed a linear increase during the first 18days of the experiment in almost all the substrates used; both techniques showed a good match, but the difference in values obtained was approximately one order of magnitude. GC–FID results revealed a substantial hydrocarbon degradation rate in almost all hydrocarbon sources and in particular at 15°C rather than 4°C (for commercial oil engine, oily waste, fuel jet, and crude oil). A more efficient degradation was observed in cultures grown with diesel and bilge water at 4°C.

Ambient PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 μm) samples, collected in a 8-week wintertime sampling program in two residential sites of Bhilai, India during the Indian Diwali festival in November 2012, were chemically characterized for 38 chemical species including eight speciated carbonaceous fractions (SCFs) of elemental (EC) and organic carbon (OC), twenty one metallic elements, and nine water soluble ionic species. Our objectives were to investigate: 1) relative abundances of SCFs contained in PM2.5during the Diwali festival period compared to normal days, and 2) enrichment pattern of potential inorganic markers of firework emission in ambient PM2.5during the festival days. Eight-fold increase inPM2.5mass concentrations were measured during the Diwali festival days compared to concentrations occurring in normal days. Bursting of firecrackers in the residential streets have shown significant contribution to the emission markers (K, Mg, Zn, S, EC and OC) along with crustal markers (Ca, Fe, Al) in ambient PM2.5aerosol samples. Concentrations of water soluble ionic species were found to be 10 times greater than those found in normal days. Further, the anion/cation ratios were found to reach a factor of 2; indicating the acidic character of emissions resulting from fireworks. The relative abundance of SCFs and higher ratios of OC to EC during the Diwali episode suggested the significant formation of secondary organic carbon (SOC) aerosols. We estimate that aerosols emitted from firework bursting contribute up to 32% of total ambient PM2.5 during the Diwali festival.