As a result of legal protection and population recovery, European polecats (Mustela putorius) in Great Britain are expanding into areas associated with greater usage of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs). We analysed polecat livers collected from road casualties from 2013 to 2016 for residues of five SGARs. We related variation in residues to polecat traits and potential exposure pathways, by analysing stable isotopes of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) in their whiskers. 54 of 68 (79%) polecats had detectable residues of at least one SGAR. Bromadiolone (71%) was the most frequently detected compound, followed by difenacoum (53%) and brodifacoum (35%). Applying historical limits of detection to allow comparison between these new data and previous assessments, we show that in the 25 years from 1992 to 2016 inclusive, the rate of detection of SGARs in polecats in Britain has increased by a factor of 1.7. The probability of SGAR detection was positively related to increasing values of δ15N, suggesting that polecats feeding at a higher trophic level were more likely to be exposed. Total concentrations of SGARs in polecats with detectable residues were higher in polecats collected in arable compared to pastoral habitats, and in the west compared to the east of Britain. The number of compounds detected and total concentrations of SGARs increased with polecat age. There was no evidence of regional or seasonal variation in the probability of detecting SGARs, suggesting that the current risk of exposure to SGARs does not vary seasonally and has increased (from that in the 1990s) throughout the polecat's range. We recommend quantification of current practices in rodenticide usage, particularly in the light of recent regulatory changes, to enable assessment and mitigation of the risks of secondary exposure to rodenticides in non-target wildlife.

Agriculture is today indispensably connected with enormous use of pesticides. Despite tough regulation, their entrance into soil cannot be excluded and they might enter soil organisms and plants and continue further to terrestrial food chains. This study was conducted to investigate the bioaccumulation of two pesticides currently used in large amounts, the insecticide chlorpyrifos (CLP) and the fungicide tebuconazole (TBZ). Their detailed uptake kinetics in the model earthworm species Eisenia andrei were measured in two arable soils differing in organic carbon content (1.02 and 1.93% respectively). According to our results, a steady state was reached after 3–5 days for both pesticides and soils. The values of bioaccumulation factors calculated at the steady state ranged from 4.5 to 6.3 for CLP and 2.2–13.1 for TBZ. Bioaccumulation factors were also calculated as the ratio of uptake and elimination rate constants with results comparable with steady-state bioaccumulation factors. The results suggested that the degradation and bioaccumulation of tested compounds might be influenced by other factors than only total organic carbon (e.g. clay content). The lower Koc and hydrophobicity of TBZ relative to CLP probably led to higher availability of TBZ through pore water exposure. On the other hand, CLP's higher hydrophobicity probably caused an increase in availability by its additional uptake via ingestion. To enable a proper ecological risk assessment of current pesticides in soils, it is necessary to accurately determine their bioaccumulation in soil invertebrates. We believe that our study not only brings such information for two specific pesticides but also addresses key methodological issues in this area.

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.

In order to improve the prediction accuracy and real-time of the air pollutant concentration prediction, this paper proposes self-adaptive neuro-fuzzy weighted extreme learning machine (ANFIS-WELM) based on the weighted extreme learning machine (WELM) and the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) combined air pollutant concentration prediction method. Firstly, Gaussian membership function parameters are selected to fuzzify the input values and calculate the membership degree of each input variable. Secondly, corresponding fuzzy rules are activated, and the firing strength is normalized to calculate the output matrix of hidden nodes. Then, the optimal parameters (C, M), weights are assigned to weighted ELM by using locally weighted linear regression, and the regularized WELM target formula with equality constraint is optimized by the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions, the output weight matrix is calculated, and finally the prediction output matrix is calculated. Based on the air pollutant concentration data collected in Datong, Taiwan, the data on the pollutants containing carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), PM2.5 (particulate matter) and PM10, are selected by different historical time series lengths, using genetic algorithm-backpropagation neural network (GA-BPNN), support vector regression (SVR), extreme learning machine (ELM), WELM, ANFIS, regularized extreme learning adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (R-ELANFIS) and ANFIS-WELM are built for predict the concentration of each pollutant collected by single monitoring point in single-step time series. The experimental results show that the ANFIS-WELM presented in this paper has better prediction accuracy and real-time performance, realizes the prediction of multi-step time series on the basis of the ANFIS-WELM, and realizes the engineering application of the ANFIS-WELM algorithm package on the self-developed mobile source emissions online monitoring data center software system.

Manure treatment technologies are rapidly developing to minimize eutrophication of surrounding environments and potentially decrease the introduction of antibiotics and antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) into the environment. While laboratory and pilot-scale manure treatment systems boast promising results, antibiotic and ARG removals in full-scale systems receiving continuous manure input have not been evaluated. The effect of treatment on ARGs is similarly lacking. This study examines the occurrence and transformation of sulfonamides, tetracyclines, tetracycline degradation products, and related ARGs throughout a full-scale advanced anaerobic digester (AAD) receiving continuous manure and antibiotic input. Manure samples were collected throughout the AAD system to evaluate baseline antibiotic and ARG input (raw manure), the effect of hygenization (post-pasteurized manure) and anaerobic digestion (post-digestion manure) on antibiotic and ARG levels. Antibiotics were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and the ARGs tet(O), tet(W), sul1 and sul2 were analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR). Significant reductions in the concentrations of chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, tetracycline and their degradation products were observed in manure liquids following treatment (p < 0.001), concomitant to significant increases in manure solids (p < 0.001). These results suggest sorption is the major removal route for tetracyclines during AAD. Significant decreases in the epimer-to-total residue ratios for chlortetracycline and tetracycline in manure solids further indicate degradation is desorption-limited. Moreover, sul1 and sul2 copies decreased significantly (p < 0.001) following AAD in the absence of sulfonamide antibiotics, while tetracyclines-resistant genes remained unchanged. A cross-sectional study of dairy farms utilizing natural aeration and liquid-solid separation treatments was additionally performed to compare levels of antibiotics and ARGs found in AAD with the levels in common manure management systems. The concentration of antibiotics in raw manure varied greatly between farms while minimal differences in ARGs were observed. However, significant (p < 0.01) differences in the levels of antibiotics and ARGs (except tet(W)) were observed in the effluents from the three different manure management systems.

Antibiotic resistance is a worsening global concern, and the environmental behaviors and migration patterns of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have attracted considerable interest. Understanding the long-range transport of ARG pollution is crucial. In this study, we characterized the dynamics of ARG changes after their release into aquatic environments and demonstrated the importance of traditional chemical contaminants in the transmission mechanisms of ARGs. We hypothesized that the main route of ARG proliferation switches from active transmission to passive transmission. This antibiotic-dominated switch is motivated and affected by non-corresponding contaminants. The effect of anthropogenic activities gradually weakens from inland aquatic environments to ocean environments; however, the effect of changes in environmental conditions is enhanced along this gradient. The insights discussed in this study will help to improve the understanding of the distribution and migration of ARG pollution in various aquatic environments, and provide a modern perspective to reveal the effect of corresponding contaminants and non-corresponding contaminants in the process of antibiotic resistance proliferation.

Coastal salt marshes provide the valuable ecosystem service of removing anthropogenic nitrogen (N) via microbially-mediated denitrification. During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill, oil exposure killed marsh plants in some regions and contributed to rapid compositional shifts in sediment microbial communities, which can impact ecosystem denitrification capacity. Within 3–5 years of the spill, plant biomass and microbial communities in some impacted marshes can recover to a new stable state. The objective of this study was to determine whether marsh recovery 6 years after the DWH oil spill results in subsequent recovery of denitrification capacity. We measured denitrification capacity (isotope pairing technique), microbial 16S rRNA gene composition, and denitrifier abundance (quantitative PCR) at sites subjected to light, moderate, and heavy oiling during the spill that were not targeted by any clean-up efforts. There were no differences in plant belowground biomass, sediment extractable NH₄⁺, inorganic nitrogen flux, 16S rRNA composition, 16S rRNA diversity, or denitrifier functional gene (nirS, norB, and nosZ) abundances associated with oiling status, indicating that certain drivers of ecosystem denitrification capacity have recovered or achieved a new stable state six years after the spill. However, on average, denitrification capacities at the moderately and heavily oiled sites were less than 49% of that of the lightly oiled site (27.7 ± 14.7 and 37.2 ± 24.5 vs 71.8 ± 33.8 μmol N m⁻² h⁻¹, respectively). The presence of heavily weathered oiled residue (matched and non-matched for MC252) had no effect on process rates or microbial composition. The loss of function at the moderately and heavily oiled sites compared to the lightly oiled site despite the comparable microbial and environmental factors suggests that oiling intensity plays a role in the long-term recovery of marsh ecosystem services.

Land application of biomass-derived biochar has been increasingly recommended as a beneficial soil amendment for nutrients (such as N, P) retention. However, the small-scale biochar particles, especially those in the nano-scale range, may carry nutrients downward the soil profile, reducing nutrition retention and posing a potential risk to the groundwater. In this study, column experiments were conducted to investigate the retention and transport of phosphorus (P) in two acidic and two alkaline soils as affected by wood chip-derived biochar nanoparticles (NPs). In acidic paddy and red soils, biochar NPs facilitated the retention of P, increasing by about 24% and 16%, respectively, compared to the biochar absence. It is because biochar NPs stabilize soil Fe/Al oxides and dissolved organic carbon (DOC), thereby reducing the release of Fe/Al oxides- and DOC-associated P. In contrast, in alkaline huangmian and chao soils, retention of P was reduced in the presence of biochar NPs, decreasing by about 23% and 18%, respectively. It was mainly due to the increased transport of Fe/Al oxides-associated P in effluents. Moreover, biochar NPs could also act as a P carrier, mediating the retention of P. The diffusive gradients in thin films provided in-suit measurement of labile P in soil profiles, showing much lower labile P from retained P in acidic soils than that from alkaline soils though the labile P with biochar NPs presence was increased in all soils. Our findings indicate that biochar NPs have contrasting effects on the retention of P in acidic and alkaline soils, implying the cautious land applications of biochar for nutrients retention in soils with different acidities.

In this study, we investigated the in situ responses of Red Sea picophytoplankton, the dominant phytoplankton group in the oligotrophic ocean, to two toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phenanthrene and pyrene. The experiments were conducted across a latitudinal gradient of the Saudi Arabian Red Sea, an area sensitive to oil pollution. We observed significant adverse effects on the growth and abundance of the picocyanobacteria Synechococcus and picoeukaryotes, at all stations sampled. Prochlorococcus, which was abundant only at one of the stations, also appeared to be affected. Pyrene was found to be more toxic to phytoplankton at all stations. In general, picoeukaryotes exhibited higher sensitivity to PAHs than Synechococcus. Populations in the highly oligotrophic Northern region of the Red Sea were more tolerant to PAHs, presumably influenced by the natural selection of more resistant strains of phytoplankton due to the prolonged exposure to PAHs. Toxicity threshold values estimated here are higher than those reported for picophytoplankton from other oligotrophic marine waters and exceed by far the natural levels of PAHs in many oceans. Our findings reveal a possible adaptation of picophytoplankton populations to oil-related contaminants, which may clearly influence their spatial distribution patterns in the Red Sea.

Plastic pollution in the environment is currently receiving worldwide attention. Improper dumping of disused or abandoned plastic wastes leads to contamination of the environment. In particular, the disposal of municipal wastewater effluent, sewage sludge landfill, and plastic mulch from agricultural activities is a serious issue and of major concern regarding soil pollution. Compared to plastic pollution in the marine and freshwater ecosystems, that in the soil ecosystem has been relatively neglected. In this study, we discussed plastic pollution in the soil environment and investigated research on the effects of plastic wastes, especially microplastics, on the soil ecosystem. We found that earthworms have been predominantly used as the test species in investigating the effects of soil plastic pollution on organisms. Therefore, further research investigating the effects of plastic on other species models (invertebrates, plants, microorganisms, and insects) are required to understand the effects of plastic pollution on the overall soil ecosystem. In addition, we suggest other perspectives for future studies on plastic pollution and soil ecotoxicity of plastics wastes, providing a direction for such research.