Great efforts have been made in China to retrofit and upgrade the existing municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for enhanced removal of organic substrates and in particular nutrients. However, the removal of trace recalcitrant or hazardous organic chemicals, e.g. steroid estrogens, one group of typical endocrine disrupting chemicals, has long been overlooked. The extensive investigations on estrogen removal rates in global and Chinese WWTPs and the estrogen biodegradation kinetics results in batch laboratory experiments are reviewed in this study. The effects of estrogen initial concentration and nitrifying activated sludge are highlighted. Challenges existing in current estrogen studies are pointed out, which are relevant for researches on fate and behavior of similar down-the-drain chemicals in both Chinese and global WWTPs.

Metal resistance in populations of Acer rubrum and Betula papyrifera in the industrially contaminated region of Sudbury, Ontario, was compared with resistance in populations from neighbouring uncontaminated regions. In two one-season experiments, seedlings were grown outdoors on contaminated (mainly Cu, Ni) and uncontaminated substrates. Sudbury populations of both species responded less to contamination than populations from uncontaminated regions. In A. rubrum this difference was small. For both species, Sudbury plants were smaller when grown on uncontaminated substrate. B. papyrifera from Sudbury grew better on contaminated substrate than the other populations. There is indication of variation in metal resistance within the populations from the non-contaminated regions. The data shows that trees may develop adaptive resistance to heavy metals, but the low degree of resistance indicates that the development of such resistances are slower than observed for herbaceous species with shorter generation times.

The primary objective of this study was to determine whether tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) demonstrate similar responses to lake pH and mercury (Hg) contamination in northern Wisconsin as do common loons (Gavia immer). Similar to common loons, Hg concentrations in the blood of tree swallow nestlings were higher, Hg concentrations in eggs tended to be higher, and egg size tended to be smaller at low (<6.2) pH lakes. In contrast to common loons, tree swallow nestling production was not lower at low pH lakes. Based on modeling associations, Hg concentrations in tree swallow eggs and nestling blood can be used to predict Hg concentrations in common loons without the invasive or destructive sampling of loons. Mean concentrations of cadmium, manganese, and mercury in nestling livers were higher at low pH lakes than neutral pH lakes. Concentrations of cadmium, chromium, mercury, selenium, and zinc were not at toxic levels.

Total cadmium (Cd) concentrations in four ornithogenic coral-sand sedimentary profiles displayed a strong positive correlation with guano-derived phosphorus, but had no correlation with plant-originated organic matter in the top sediments. These results indicate that the total Cd distributions were predominantly controlled by guano input. Bioavailable Cd and zinc (Zn) had a greater input rate in the top sediments with respect to total Cd and total Zn, and a positive correlation with total organic carbon (TOC) derived from plant humus. Multi-regression analysis showed that the total Cd and TOC explained over 80% of the variation of bioavailable Cd, suggesting that both guano and plant inputs could significantly influence the distribution of bioavailable Cd, and that plant biocycling processes contribute more to the recent increase of bioavailable Cd. A pollution assessment indicates that the Yongle archipelago is moderately to strongly polluted with guano-derived Cd.

To advance the knowledge of environmental fate of nanomaterials, we systematically investigated the dissolution of polymer-coated CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) under UV (254 nm) irradiation. The environmental effects (i.e., irradiation intensity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and humic acid), as well as the coating effects on dissolution kinetics of QDs were investigated. Our results showed that higher irradiation intensity and temperature increased ion release rates (Cd²⁺, SeO₄ ²⁻, and Zn²⁺), whereas the different polymer coatings varied the dissolution rates. The absence of dissolved oxygen inhibited the dissolution of QDs, and we further demonstrated that the dissolution was a photo-oxidative process involved superoxide radical formation. Humic acid had a twofold effect on dissolution due to its photosensitization and photoabsorption for UV irradiation. Finally, an empirical kinetic law was proposed to interpret the above environmental effects. This study lays groundwork to better understand the environmental fate of QDs.

Phragmites australis shows potential for the phytoremediation of chlorinated chemicals. Also there has been some attempt to determine the phytotoxic effects of organochlorines (OC). This study reports for lindane (HCH), monochlorobenzene (MCB), 1,4-dichlorobenzene (DCB) and 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene (TCB), a no-observed-effect-concentration (NOEC₇d) that was 1000–300,000 times higher than environmental concentrations. Nevertheless, the combined OC mixture (NOEC₇d level of each congener) induced a synergistic toxic effect, causing a severe drop (70%) in chlorophyll concentration. The mixture 0.2mgL⁻¹ MCB+0.2mgL⁻¹ DCB+2.5mgL⁻¹ TCB+0.175mgL⁻¹ HCH, that was 15 times more concentrated than environmental OC mixture, did not cause phytotoxicity during 21 days. Antioxidant enzymes were affected immediately after the start of exposure (3 days), but the plants showed no signs of stress thereafter. These data suggest that environmental OC mixtures do not pose a significant risk to P. australis.

Prairie wetlands may be important sites of mercury (Hg) methylation resulting in elevated methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in water, sediments and biota. Invertebrates are an important food resource and may act as an indicator of MeHg exposure to higher organisms. In 2007–2008, invertebrates were collected from wetland ponds in central Saskatchewan, categorized into functional feeding groups (FFGs) and analyzed for total Hg (THg) and MeHg. Methylmercury and THg concentrations in four FFGs ranged from 0.2–393.5 ng·g⁻¹ and 9.7–507.1 ng·g⁻¹, respectively. Methylmercury concentrations generally increased from gastropods with significantly lower average MeHg concentrations compared to other invertebrate taxa. Surrounding land use (agricultural, grassland and organic agricultural) may influence MeHg concentrations in invertebrates, with invertebrate MeHg concentrations being higher from organic ponds (457.5 ± 156.7 ng·g⁻¹) compared to those from grassland ponds (74.8 ± 14.6 ng·g⁻¹) and ponds on agricultural lands (32.8 ± 6.2 ng·g⁻¹).

On-road emissions are a major contributor to rising concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases. In this study, we applied a downscaling methodology based on commonly available spatial parameters to model on-road CO₂ emissions at the 1 × 1 km scale for the Boston, MA region and tested our approach with surface-level CO₂ observations. Using two previously constructed emissions inventories with differing spatial patterns and underlying data sources, we developed regression models based on impervious surface area and volume-weighted road density that could be scaled to any resolution. We found that the models accurately reflected the inventories at their original scales (R² = 0.63 for both models) and exhibited a strong relationship with observed CO₂ mixing ratios when downscaled across the region. Moreover, the improved spatial agreement of the models over the original inventories confirmed that either product represents a viable basis for downscaling in other metropolitan regions, even with limited data.

Naphthenic acids (NA) have been identified as harmful environmental contaminants that influence survival, growth and development of wildlife. Amphibian larvae are particularly susceptible to waterborne contaminants, but little information exists regarding exposure of amphibian embryos or tadpoles to NA. Our results demonstrate that embryos of Lithobates pipiens and Silurana tropicalis exposed to 2–4 mg/l of a commercial NA blend suffer significant reductions (32% and 25%, respectively) in growth and development upon hatching. Increased incidences of deformities were observed in exposed individuals of both species, but were only significant in L. pipiens. Embryos suffered 100% mortality following exposure to 6 mg/l NAs, and narcosis at lower concentrations. LC50 estimates were 4.10 mg/l for 72-h exposure in L. pipiens and 4.13, 3.51, and 2.95 mg/l for 24-, 48-, and 72-h exposure in S. tropicalis. These data suggest that exposure to NAs at environmentally realized concentrations may negatively affect tadpole populations.