Microplastic pollution was studied in China's largest inland lake – Qinghai Lake in this work. Microplastics were detected with abundance varies from 0.05 × 10⁵ to 7.58 × 10⁵ items km⁻² in the lake surface water, 0.03 × 10⁵ to 0.31 × 10⁵ items km⁻² in the inflowing rivers, 50 to 1292 items m⁻² in the lakeshore sediment, and 2 to 15 items per individual in the fish samples, respectively. Small microplastics (0.1–0.5 mm) dominated in the lake surface water while large microplastics (1–5 mm) are more abundant in the river samples. Microplastics were predominantly in sheet and fiber shapes in the lake and river water samples but were more diverse in the lakeshore sediment samples. Polymer types of microplastics were mainly polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) as identified using Raman Spectroscopy. Spatially, microplastic abundance was the highest in the central part of the lake, likely due to the transport of lake current. Based on the higher abundance of microplastics near the tourist access points, plastic wastes from tourism are considered as an important source of microplastics in Qinghai Lake. As an important area for wildlife conservation, better waste management practice should be implemented, and waste disposal and recycling infrastructures should be improved for the protection of Qinghai Lake.

Air quality traffic-related measures have been implemented worldwide to control the pollution levels of urban areas. Although some of those measures are claiming environmental improvements, few studies have checked their real impact. In fact, quantitative estimates are often focused on reducing emissions, rather than on evaluating the actual measures’ effect on air quality. Even when air quality studies are conducted, results are frequently unclear.In order to properly assess the real impact on air quality of traffic-related measures, a statistical method is proposed. The method compares the pollutant concentration levels observed after the implementation of a measure with the concentration values of the previous year. Short- and long-term impact is assessed considering not only their influence on the average pollutant concentration, but also on its maximum level. To control the effect of the main confounding factors, only the days with similar environmental conditions are analysed. The changeability of the key meteorological variables that affect the transport and dispersion of the pollutant studied are used to identify and group the days categorized as similar. Resemblance of the pollutants' concentration of the previous day is also taken into account. The impact of the road traffic measures on the air pollutants’ concentration is then checked for those similar days using specific statistical functions.To evaluate the proposed method, the impact on PM₂.₅ concentrations of two air quality traffic-related measures (M1 and M2) implemented in the city of Beijing are taken into consideration: M1 was implemented in 2009, restricting the circulation of yellow-labelled vehicles, while M2 was implemented in 2014, restricting the circulation of heavy-duty vehicles. To compare the results of each measure, a time-period when these measures were not applied is used as case-control.

The environment is one of the main reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) but multidrug resistant (MDR) environmental isolates are barely characterised. As suggested by the name, Pedobacter species have been predominantly isolated from soils, but are also recovered from water (including drinking water), chilled food, fish, compost, sludge, glaciers and other extreme environments. The susceptibility phenotype of Pedobacter lusitanus NL19 (isolated from a deactivated uranium mine), its closely related species and the genus type strain were investigated. All strains are MDR bacteria, resistant to β-lactams, colistin, aminoglycosides and ciprofloxacin. Therefore, Pedobacter spp. are likely intrinsically resistant to β-lactams (including ertapenem) and to other three classes of antibiotics. 6%–8% of their total protein-encoding genes encode a diverse collection of putative ARGs, including β-lactamases. These enzymes are highly abundant in all the other Pedobacter strains with sequenced genomes, especially class C, class B3 and class A. LUS-1 and PLN-1 were further characterised in E. coli. LUS-1 is a class A β-lactamase and it conferred an increase in the MIC of cefotaxime, albeit very low. PLN-1 is a class B3 β-lactamase with carbapenemase activity, conferring resistance to ertapenem and a 66x and 16x increase in the MIC of imipenem and meropenem, respectively. PLN-1 also hydrolyses ampicillin, 1st and 3rd generation cephalosporins, and at a lower extent cephamycins and 4th generation cephalosporins. Therefore, Pedobacter spp. encode a large and diverse arsenal of resistance mechanisms that make them environmental superbugs.

The environmental contaminant, especially pesticides, threatened the amphibian population. In this assay, the enantioselective behavior of cyproconazole on Rana nigromaculata was studied. We found LC50 (lethal concentration causing 50% mortality) of 4-enantiomers was nearly twice as 3-enantiomers in 96 h acute toxicity test. Besides, the significant considerable variation of oxidative stress and LDH (lactic dehydrogenase) induced by the four enantiomers indicated that cyproconazole could enantioselectively affect enzymes in tadpoles. Bioaccumulation experiments showed the order of cyproconazole in the tadpoles was 4-enantiomers>3- enantiomers>2- enantiomers>1- enantiomers during the exposure for 28d. In tissue distribution test, cyproconazole was formed and accumulated in order of 4-enantiomers>2-enantiomers>3- enantiomers>1- enantiomers, except that in the gut. During the elimination experiment, cyproconazole was rapidly eliminated by 95% within the only 24 h. These results suggested that the influence of enantioselective behavior should consider when assessing ecological risk of chiral pesticides to amphibians.

This study presents the air pollution findings of the submicron (PM1) and fine (PM2.5) particulate matter. The submicron particles are entirely absorbed by the human body and they cause the greatest health risk. For the PM2.5 concentration, there are yearly and/or daily limit values regulations by the European Union (EU) and World Health Organization (WHO). There are no such regulations for PM1 but for health risk reason the knowledge of its concentration is important. This paper presents the seasonal concentration contribution of PM1 and PM2.5, their chemical composition and assessed three basic sources. Daily samples of both fractions were collected from 2nd July 2016 to 27th February 2017 in Krakow, Poland. Apart from PM1 and PM2.5 the concentration of 16 elements, 8 ions and BC for each samples were measured. Based on these chemical species the positive matrix factorization (PMF) receptor modeling was used for the determination of three main sources contribution to the PM1 and PM2.5 concentrations. Daily average concentrations of PM2.5 were 12 μg/m3 in summer and 60 μg/m3 in winter. For PM1 it was 6.9 μg/m3 in summer and 17.3 μg/m3 in winter. These data show a significant difference in percentage contribution of PM1 in PM2.5 in summer (58%) and in winter (29%).For the combustion source, the concentrations calculated from PMF modeling in winter were 4.8 μg/m3 for PM1 and 31 μg/m3 for PM2.5. In summer, the concentrations were smaller than 1 μg/m3 for both fractions. Secondary aerosols' concentration for PM1 was 3.4 μg/m3 in summer and 11 μg/m3 in winter - for PM2.5 these were 7.1 μg/m3 and 17 μg/m3 respectively. The third source - soil, industry and traffic together, had small seasonal variation: for PM1 it was from 1.4 to 1.8 μg/m3 and for PM2.5 from 4.7 to 7.9 μg/m3.

Recently, a novel method for carbon capture and storage has been proposed, which converts gaseous CO2 into aqueous bicarbonate ions (HCO3−), allowing it to be deposited into the ocean. This alkalinization method could be used to dispose large amounts of CO2 without acidifying seawater pH, but there is no information on the potential adverse effects of consequently elevated HCO3− concentrations on marine organisms. In this study, we evaluated the ecotoxicological effects of elevated concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) (max 193 mM) on 10 marine organisms. We found species-specific ecotoxicological effects of elevated DIC on marine organisms, with EC50-DIC (causing 50% inhibition) of 11–85 mM. The tentative criteria for protecting 80% of individuals of marine organisms are suggested to be pH 7.8 and 11 mM DIC, based on acidification data previously documented and alkalinization data newly obtained from this study. Overall, the results of this study are useful for providing baseline information on ecotoxicological effects of elevated DIC on marine organisms. More complementary studies are needed on the alkalinization method to determine DIC effects on seawater chemistry and marine organisms.

Arsenic, cadmium and lead are toxic environmental contaminants. They were shown to be associated with telomere length (TL) in adults. Although they can cross the placental barrier, the effect of prenatal exposure of these metals on newborn TL is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine whether prenatal exposure to heavy metals has an impact on newborn leucocyte TL. A birth-cohort study was conducted with 409 pregnant women and their newborns in Myanmar. During the first visit, face-to-face interviews were conducted, and maternal spot urine sampling was performed. Cord blood samples were collected during follow-up. Urinary heavy metal concentration was measured by ICP-MS and adjusted for creatinine. Relative TL was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The extent of prenatal arsenic, cadmium and lead exposure and their associations with newborn leucocyte TL were assessed using multivariate linear regression. The median values of maternal urinary arsenic, cadmium, and lead concentrations were 73.9, 0.9, and 1.8 μg/g creatinine, respectively. Prenatal arsenic and cadmium exposure was significantly associated with newborn TL shortening (lowest vs highest quartile, coefficient = - 0.13, 95% CI: - 0.22, - 0.03, p = 0.002, and coefficient = - 0.17, 95% CI: - 0.27, - 0.07, p = 0.001, respectively), and the associations remained robust after adjusting for confounders. There was no significant association between prenatal lead exposure and newborn TL. The present study identified the effect of arsenic and cadmium exposure on TL shortening, even in utero exposure at a lower concentration.

The ubiquitous presence of microplastics (MPs) has been demonstrated in all environmental compartments in the recent years. They are detected in air, freshwater, soil, organisms and particularly in marine ecosystems. Since sediments are known to be the major sink of many organic and inorganic pollutants, the aim of this study was to develop and validate a fast and cheap methodology to assess the MP contamination in intertidal sediments from the Gulf of Biscay (Pays de la Loire region, France). Sediments were sampled at three locations (Pays de la Loire region, France) and during two seasons: October 2015 and March 2016. The analytical protocol involved MP extraction from dried sediments using milliQ water and a centrifugation technique. After a filtration step of supernatants, MPs were detected and directly identified on the membrane filters using μFTIR spectroscopy in reflection mode. For the first time, the number of replicates allowing to obtain a satisfying representativeness of the whole sampled sediment was also evaluated at 10 replicates of 25 g each. The average number of MPs in sediments was 67 (±76) MPs/kg dw (N = 60) with no significant difference between sites and seasons. Ten different compositions of MPs were defined by μFT-IR with a high proportion of polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE), 38 and 24%, respectively. Among MPs, mainly fragments (84%) were observed with main size classes corresponding to [>100 μm] and [50–100 μm] but no particles > 1 mm could be found suggesting that mainly small microplastics (<1 mm) were subject to vertical transport.

The research was conducted to investigate the accumulation, distribution and availability of Cd in paddy soil and their relation to Cd in rice plants under 30-year fertilization regimes. Six treatments were involved in the study: control without fertilization (CK), chemical fertilizer (NPK), high nitrogen chemical fertilizer (HN), rice straw incorporation (ST), low and high dosage of manure fertilizer (LM and HM). Total and DTPA extractable concentration of Cd (T-Cd and DTPA-Cd) in bulk soils (20 cm topsoil), profiles (0–60 cm) and aggregates (>2, 1–2, 0.5–1, 0.25–0.5, 0.053–0.25 and < 0.053 mm) were investigated. The Cd concentration in relevant rice plant (roots, stems, leaves, husks and grains) were also analyzed. Manure fertilizers caused T-Cd accumulation in bulk soil with a significant increase of 36.2% in LM and 81.2% in HM. Similar impacts of manure fertilizers were observed in DTPA-Cd in the bulk soil. Further, the HM generated a further accumulation in deeper soil layers, presenting a remarkable increase of T-Cd (28.3%–225%) in 10–40 cm and DTPA-Cd (116%–158%) in 10–30 cm profiles. Moreover, the continuous application of manure fertilizers enhanced the availability of Cd in all aggregate size classes with an increase of 17.3%–87.8% in DTPA-Cd. Organic fertilizers (LM, HM and ST) heightened the content of Cd (38.0%–152%) in all parts of rice plant. The accumulation of Cd in rice plants was directly affected by fertilization regimes and Cd availability in the 10–20 cm soil layers and 0.25–0.5 mm aggregates. In conclusion, long-term application of manures resulted in increasing availability of Cd in aggregates and in topsoil and subsoil layers, which accordingly enhanced the accumulation of Cd in rice plants.

The purpose of this study is to verify the hypothesis that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) model rat is more susceptible to cold stress and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure than the healthy rat, and explore the related mechanism. COPD rat model, established with cigarette smoke and lipopolysaccharide intratracheal instillation, were exposed to cold stress (0 °C) and PM2.5 (0, 3.2, 12.8 mg/ml). After that, the levels of superoxide dismutase, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) and angiotensin Ⅱ (Ang-Ⅱ) in lung were measured, as well as the expression levels of lung 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). There were significant positive relationships between PM2.5 and lung level of iNOS, TNF-α, MCP-1 and Ang-Ⅱ, lung function and pathologic damage in COPD rats. The HO-1, NF-κB and 8-OHdG were found highly expressed in COPD rat lung, particularly at the higher PM2.5 dose of cold stress groups, while Nrf2 was found declined. Thus, COPD rats may be more susceptible to cold stress and PM2.5 exposure. Cold stress may aggravate PM2.5-induced toxic effects in the lung of COPD rats through increasing Ang-Ⅱ/NF-κB signaling pathway and suppressing Nrf2 signaling pathway.