The total volume of the coal processing wastes (filter cakes) produced by Russia, China, and India is as high as dozens of millions of tons per year. The concentrations of CO and CO₂ in the emissions from the combustion of filter cakes have been measured directly for the first time. They are the biggest volume of coal processing wastes. There have been many discussions about using these wastes as primary or secondary components of coal-water slurries (CWS) and coal-water slurries containing petrochemicals (CWSP). Boilers have already been operationally tested in Russia for the combustion of CWSP based on filter cakes. In this work, the concentrations of hazardous emissions have been measured at temperatures ranging from 500 to 1000°С. The produced CO and CO₂ concentrations are shown to be practically constant at high temperatures (over 900°С) for all the coal processing wastes under study. Experiments have shown the feasibility to lowering the combustion temperatures of coal processing wastes down to 750–850°С. This provides sustainable combustion and reduces the CO and CO₂ emissions 1.2–1.7 times. These relatively low temperatures ensure satisfactory environmental and energy performance of combustion. Using CWS and CWSP instead of conventional solid fuels significantly reduces NOₓ and SOₓ emissions but leaves CO and CO₂ emissions practically at the same level as coal powder combustion. Therefore, the environmentally friendly future (in terms of all the main atmospheric emissions: CO, CO₂, NOₓ, and SOₓ) of both CWS and CWSP technologies relies on low-temperature combustion.

World soils are subjected to a number of anthropogenic global change factors. Although many previous studies contributed to understand how single global change factors affect soil properties, there have been few studies aimed at understanding how two naturally co-occurring global change drivers, nitrogen (N) deposition and increased precipitation, affect critical soil properties. In addition, most atmospheric N deposition and precipitation increase studies have been simulated by directly adding N solution or water to the forest floor, and thus largely neglect some key canopy processes in natural conditions. These previous studies, therefore, may not realistically simulate natural atmospheric N deposition and precipitation increase in forest ecosystems. In a field experiment, we used novel canopy applications to investigate the effects of N deposition, increased precipitation, and their combination on soil chemical properties and the microbial community in a temperate deciduous forest. We found that both soil chemistry and microorganisms were sensitive to these global change factors, especially when they were simultaneously applied. These effects were evident within 2 years of treatment initiation. Canopy N deposition immediately accelerated soil acidification, base cation depletion, and toxic metal accumulation. Although increased precipitation only promoted base cation leaching, this exacerbated the effects of N deposition. Increased precipitation decreased soil fungal biomass, possible due to wetting/re-drying stress or to the depletion of Na. When N deposition and increased precipitation occurred together, soil gram-negative bacteria decreased significantly, and the community structure of soil bacteria was altered. The reduction of gram-negative bacterial biomass was closely linked to the accumulation of the toxic metals Al and Fe. These results suggested that short-term responses in soil cations following N deposition and increased precipitation could change microbial biomass and community structure.

Marine plastic pollution is present in all oceans, including remote oceanic islands. Despite the increasing number of articles on plastic pollution in the last years, there is still a lack of studies in islands, that are biodiversity hotspots when compared to the surrounding ocean, and even other recognized highly biodiverse marine environments. Articles published in the peer reviewed literature (N = 20) were analysed according to the presence of macro (>5 mm) and microplastics (<5 mm) on beaches and the marine habitats immediately adjacent to 31 islands of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. The first articles date from the 1980s, but most were published in the 2000s. Articles on macroplastics were predominant in this review (N = 12). Beaches were the most studied environment, possibly due to easy access. The main focus of most articles was the spatial distribution of plastics associated with variables such as position of the beach in relation to wind and currents. Very few studies have analysed plastics colonization by organisms or the identification of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Islands of the North/South Atlantic and Caribbean Sea were influenced by different sources of macroplastics, being marine-based sources (i.e., fishing activities) predominant in the Atlantic Ocean basin. On the other hand, in the Caribbean Sea, land-based sources were more common.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is spreading worldwide and thereby is increasingly interfering with natural dark-light cycles. Meanwhile, effects of very low intensities of light pollution on animals have rarely been investigated. We explored the effects of low intensity ALAN over seven months in eight experimental bank vole (Myodes glareolus) populations in large grassland enclosures over winter and early breeding season, using LED garden lamps. Initial populations consisted of eight individuals (32 animals per hectare) in enclosures with or without ALAN. We found that bank voles under ALAN experienced changes in daily activity patterns and space use behavior, measured by automated radiotelemetry. There were no differences in survival and body mass, measured with live trapping, and none in levels of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites. Voles in the ALAN treatment showed higher activity at night during half moon, and had larger day ranges during new moon. Thus, even low levels of light pollution as experienced in remote areas or by sky glow can lead to changes in animal behavior and could have consequences for species interactions.

Attention has been paid to the environmental distribution and fate of nanomedicines. However, their effects on the toxicity of environmental pollutants are lack of knowledge. In this study, the negatively charged poly (ethylene glycol)-b-poly (L-lactide-co-glycolide) (mPEG-PLA) and positively charged polyethyleneimine-palmitate (PEI-PA) nanomicelles were synthesized and served as model drug carriers to study the interaction and combined toxicity with dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). DDT exerted limited effect on the biointerfacial behavior of mPEG-PLA nanomicelles, whereas it significantly mitigated the attachment of PEI-PA nanomicelles on the model cell membrane as monitored by quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D). The cytotoxicity of DDT towards NIH 3T3 cells was greatly decreased by either co-treatment or pre-treatment with the nanomicelles according to the results of real-time cell analysis (RTCA). The cell viability of NIH 3T3 exposed to DDT was increased up to 90% by the co-treatment with mPEG-PLA nanomicelles. Three possible reasons were proposed: (1) decreased amount of free DDT in the cell culture medium due to the partitioning of DDT into nanomicelles; (2) mitigated cellular uptake of nanomicelle-DDT complexes due to the complex agglomeration or electrostatic repulsion between complexes and cell membrane; (3) detoxification effect in the lysosome upon endocytosis of nanomicelle-DDT complexes.

Undissolved humic acid (HA) has a great retention effect on the migration of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] in soil, and HA functional groups play a predominant role in this process. However, the coupled mode between Cr(VI) retention and HA functional groups reaction is still unclear. In this study, it was found that a fair amount of Cr on HA existed in the forms of ion exchangeable and binding Cr(VI) during the reaction resulting from the ion exchange adsorption and complexation of Cr(VI). According to the results of two-dimensional correlation spectroscopic analysis (2DCOS), HA functional groups participated in the reaction with Cr(VI) in the order of carboxyl ≈ chelated carboxyl > phenol > polysaccharide > methyl, and all the functional groups were more likely to be located at aromatic domains. Based on the results of XPS spectra, rather than to be oxidized by Cr(VI), carboxyl more tended to be complexed by chromium, which is regarded as the precondition for Cr(VI) reduction. Phenol, polysaccharide and methyl with distinct reaction activities successively acted as major electron donors for Cr(VI) reduction in different reaction stages. Consequently, it was determined that the retention of Cr(VI) by undissolved HA followed an adsorption-complexation-reduction mechanism, and based on this, a multi-step kinetic model with multiple types of complexation/reduction sites was developed to simulate the retention processes resulting in a much better fitting effect (R2 > 0.99) compared with traditional first-order and second-order kinetic models (R2 < 0.95). This demonstrated that the multi-step kinetic model is of great potential in accurately simulating the migration and transformation of Cr(VI) in soil environment.

Iodination of dissolved organic matter (DOM) initiated by manganese oxide may represent an important source of organoiodine compounds (OICs) for iodide-containing waters. Here, Suwannee River natural organic matter was selected as model DOM, the OICs formation in simulated freshwater samples from iodinated DOM induced by manganese oxide (δ-MnO2) was investigated at different pHs and concentrations of iodide and δ-MnO2 by using negative ion electrospray ionization coupled with Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (ESI-FT-ICR MS). While no OIC was observed in DOM control samples without δ-MnO2, hundreds of OICs were detected in the presence of δ-MnO2, suggesting the enhanced role of δ-MnO2 played in DOM iodination. The relative abundance was defined as the value of dividing the peak intensity of OICs by the highest m/z peak intensity constantly occurred in each mass spectrum, and selected as a parameter for partly reflecting the real level of OICs. The relative abundance of most OICs were around or greater than 1%, and several OICs with higher relative abundance were identified as diiodo-5-hydroxy-4-cyclopentene-1,3-dione, diiodomethane and diiodoacetic acid. The numbers of the formed OICs increased with the increase concentrations of iodide/δ-MnO2 and the decrease of pH, and nearly all OICs formed at lower levels of iodide/δ-MnO2 and/or higher pH were overlapped by that at higher levels of iodide/δ-MnO2 and/or lower pH, indicating the reliability of FT-ICR MS analysis techniques and data processing method. The OICs were formed mainly from the iodination of typical lignin-like and tannin-like compounds, as well as the precursor compounds with higher relative abundance through substitution reactions. Our findings demonstrate that the OICs formation by δ-MnO2-initiated DOM iodination should receive more attention and the concentration, exact structure and toxicity of the OICs need to be further investigated.

Microplastic (MP) are environmental pollutants and have the potential to cause varying degrees of aquatic toxicity. In this study, the effects on gut microbiota of adult male zebrafish exposed for 14 days to 100 and 1000 μg/L of two sizes of polystyrene MP were evaluated. Both 0.5 and 50 μm-diameter spherical polystyrene MP increased the volume of mucus in the gut at a concentration of 1000 μg/L (about 1.456 × 10¹⁰ particles/L for 0.5 μm and 1.456 × 10⁴ particles/L for 50 μm). At the phylum level, the abundance of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria decreased significantly and the abundance of Firmicutes increased significantly in the gut after 14-day exposure to 1000 μg/L of both sizes of polystyrene MP. In addition, high throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 region revealed a significant change in the richness and diversity of microbiota in the gut of polystyrene MP-exposed zebrafish. A more in depth analysis, at the genus level, revealed that a total of 29 gut microbes identified by operational taxonomic unit (OTU) analysis were significantly changed in both 0.5 and 50 μm-diameter polystyrene MP-treated groups. Moreover, it was observed that 0.5 μm polystyrene MP not only increased mRNA levels of IL1α, IL1β and IFN but also their protein levels in the gut, indicating that inflammation occurred after polystyrene MP exposure. Our findings suggest that polystyrene MP could induce microbiota dysbiosis and inflammation in the gut of adult zebrafish.

Nitrogen (N)-enriched leaching water may act as a source of indirect N₂O emission when it is discharged to agricultural drainage ditches. In this study, indirect N₂O emissions from an agricultural drainage ditch mainly receiving interflow water were measured using the static chamber-gas chromatography technique during 2012–2015 in the central Sichuan Basin in southwestern China. We found the drainage ditch was a source of indirect N₂O emissions contributing an inter-annual mean flux of 6.56 ± 1.12 μg N m⁻² h⁻¹ and a mean indirect N₂O emission factor (EF₅g) value of 0.03 ± 0.003%. The mean EF₅g value from literature review was 0.51%, which was higher than the default EF₅g value (0.25%) proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2006. Our study demonstrated that, more in situ observations of N₂O emissions as regards N leaching are required, to account for the large variation in EF₅g values and to improve the accuracy and confidence of the default EF₅g value. Indirect N₂O emissions varied with season, higher emissions occurred in summer and autumn. These seasonal variations were related to drainage water NO₃⁻-N concentration, temperature, and precipitation. Our results showed that intensive precipitation increased NO₃⁻-N concentrations and N₂O emissions, and when combined with warmer water temperatures, these may have increased the denitrification rate that led to the higher summer and autumn N₂O emissions in the studied agricultural drainage ditch.

This study characterized the effect of the metal(loid)-resistant bacteria Ralstonia eutropha Q2-8 and Exiguobacterium aurantiacum Q3-11 on Cd and As accumulation in wheat grown in Cd- and As-polluted soils (1 mg kg−1 of Cd + 40 mg kg−1 of As and 2 mg kg−1 of Cd + 60 mg kg−1 of As). The influence of strains Q2-8 and Q3-11 on water-soluble Cd and As and NH4+concentration and pH in the soil filtrate were also analyzed. Inoculation with these strains significantly reduced wheat plant Cd (12–32%) and As (9–29%) uptake and available Cd (15–28%) and As (22–38%) contents in rhizosphere soils compared to the controls. Furthermore, these strains significantly increased the relative abundances of the arsM bacterial As metabolism gene and of Fe- and Mn-oxidizing Leptothrix species in rhizosphere soils. Notably, these strains significantly reduced water-soluble Cd and As concentrations and increased pH and NH4+ concentration in the soil filtrate. These results suggest that these strains increased soil pH and the abundance of genes possibly involved in metal(loid) unavailability, resulting in reduced wheat Cd and As accumulation and highlight the possibility of using bacteria for in situ remediation and safe production of wheat or other food crops in metal(loid)-polluted soils.