Particulate matter from wood burning emissions (Cwₒₒd) was quantified at five locations in the United Kingdom (UK), comprising three rural and two urban sites between 2009 and 2021. The aethalometer method was used. Mean winter Cwₒₒd concentrations ranged from 0.26 μg m⁻³ (in rural Scotland) to 1.30 μg m⁻³ (London), which represented on average 4% (in rural environments) and 5% (urban) of PM₁₀ concentrations; and 8% of PM₂.₅. Concentrations were greatest in the evenings in winter months, with larger evening concentrations in the weekends at the urban sites. Random-forest (RF) machine learning regression models were used to reconstruct Cwₒₒd concentrations using both meteorological and temporal explanatory variables at each site. The partial dependency plots indicated that temperature and wind speed were the meteorological variables explaining the greatest variability in Cwₒₒd, with larger concentrations during cold and calm conditions. Peaks of Cwₒₒd concentrations took place during and after events that are celebrated with bonfires. These were Guy Fawkes events in the urban areas and on New Year's Day at the rural sites; the later probably related to long-range transport. Time series were built using the RF. Having removed weather influences, long-term trends of Cwₒₒd were estimated using the Theil Sen method. Trends for 2015–2021 were downward at three of the locations (London, Glasgow and rural Scotland), with rates ranging from −5.5% year⁻¹ to −2.5% year⁻¹. The replacement of old fireplaces with lower emission wood stoves might explain the decrease in Cwₒₒd especially at the urban sites The two rural sites in England observed positive trends for the same period but this was not statistically significant.

Contracting Parties to the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Maine Environment of the North-East Atlantic are required to undertake monitoring and assessment of both inorganic and organic contaminants. There is a requirement to assess contaminants across different trophic levels on an ecosystem-specific basis. However, this is currently constrained by the availability of relevant samples to cover the full range of trophic levels. This study investigates the variability (inter- and intra-species variation) of the concentrations and distributions of thirty-two polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners and nine polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners in twenty-six species covering four trophic levels from different geographic locations around Scotland. Trophic magnification factors (TMFs) were calculated using a traditional method and a balanced method for both the ICES-7 PCBs and BDE47, to refine and improve the application of TMFs to assess and predict biomagnification risk to biota in the marine environment. There were clear differences in congener percentage distribution between sample categories and species, with differences influenced by physiological processes and eco-biological parameters. Trophic magnification was found to occur for the ICES-7 PCBs and BDE47 using the traditional method, with the highest degree of trophic magnification reported for CB52. An unbalanced dataset was found to influence the calculated TMF and in some cases, the overall conclusion of the trophic transfer of PCB and PBDE congeners. The balanced method is highly recommended for calculating TMFs to ensure that the TMF is a true indication of the biomagnification potential, particularly when conducting regional comparisons for which sampling requirements are difficult to achieve.

Nitrogen deposition has been shown to have significant impacts on a range of vegetation types resulting in eutrophication and species compositional change. Data from a re-survey of 89 coastal sites in Scotland, UK, c. 34 years after the initial survey were examined to assess the degree of change in species composition that could be accounted for by nitrogen deposition. There was an overall increase in the Ellenberg Indicator Value for nitrogen (EIV-N) of 0.15 between the surveys, with a clear shift to species characteristic of more eutrophic situations. This was most evident for Acid grassland, Fixed dune, Heath, Slack and Tall grass mire communities and despite falls in EIV-N for Improved grass, Strand and Wet grassland. The increase in EIV-N was highly correlated to the cumulative deposition between the surveys, and for sites in south-east Scotland, eutrophication impacts appear severe. Unlike other studies, there appears to have been no decline in species richness associated with nitrogen deposition, though losses of species were observed on sites with the very highest levels of SOx deposition. It appears that dune vegetation (specifically Fixed dune) shows evidence of eutrophication above 4.1 kg N ha−1 yr−1, or 5.92 kg N ha−1 yr−1 if the lower 95% confidence interval is used. Coastal vegetation appears highly sensitive to nitrogen deposition, and it is suggested that major changes could have occurred prior to the first survey in 1976.

Eels are an ideal biomonitor for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) because of their high lipid content, longevity and tendency to remain within a defined range during their freshwater life phase. This study investigated concentrations of POPs in eels (Anguilla anguilla) from 30 sites across Scotland, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), DDT (and metabolites), hexachlorocyclohexanes (α, β, γ-HCH), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD) and pentachlorobenzene. Despite its EU-wide ban ∼30 years ago, DDT and its derivatives were detected in almost all samples. PCB 153 and 138 were the most widely detected PCB congeners, while BDE 47 was the dominant BDE. Pentachlorobenzene was not detected, while HCBD was detected once only. α-HCH, β-HCH and HCB concentrations were very low (generally <3 μg/kg or below detection). When compared with 1986 and 1995 data, the results revealed considerable decreases in p,p′-DDE concentrations. More drastic reductions were evident for γ-HCH, reflecting the tightening restrictions on pesticide use imposed over the previous decades.

Second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) are widely used to control rodents around the world. However, contamination by SGARs is detectable in many non-target species, particularly carnivorous mammals or birds-of-prey that hunt or scavenge on poisoned rodents. The SGAR trophic transfer pathway via rodents and their predators/scavengers appears widespread, but little is known of other pathways of SGAR contamination in non-target wildlife. This is despite the detection of SGARs in predators that do not eat rodents, such as specialist bird-eating hawks. We used a Bayesian modelling framework to examine the extent and spatio-temporal trends of SGAR contamination in the livers of 259 Eurasian Sparrowhawks, a specialist bird-eating raptor, in regions of Britain during 1995–2015. SGARs, predominantly difenacoum, were detected in 81% of birds, with highest concentrations in males and adults. SGAR concentrations in birds were lowest in Scotland and higher or increasing in other regions of Britain, which had a greater arable or urban land cover where SGARs may be widely deployed for rodent control. However, there was no overall trend for Britain, and 97% of SGAR residues in Eurasian Sparrowhawks were below 100 ng/g (wet weight), which is a potential threshold for lethal effects. The results have potential implications for the population decline of Eurasian Sparrowhawks in Britain. Fundamentally, the results indicate an extensive and persistent contamination of the avian trophic transfer pathway on a national scale, where bird-eating raptors and, by extension, their prey appear to be widely exposed to SGARs. Consequently, these findings have implications for wildlife contamination worldwide, wherever these common rodenticides are deployed, as widespread exposure of non-target species can apparently occur via multiple trophic transfer pathways involving birds as well as rodents.

Microplastics (MPs) are the most numerous debris reported in marine environments and assessment of the amounts of MPs that accumulate in wild organisms is necessary for risk assessment. Our objective was to assess MP contamination in mussels collected around the coast of Scotland (UK) to identify characteristics of MPs and to evaluate risk of human exposure to MPs via ingestion of mussels. We deployed caged mussels (Mytilus edulis) in an urbanised estuary (Edinburgh, UK) to assess seasonal changes in plastic pollution, and collected mussels (Mytilus spp and subtidal Modiolus modiolus) from eight sampling stations around Scotland to enumerate MP types at different locations. We determined the potential exposure of humans to household dust fibres during a meal to compare with amounts of MPs present in edible mussels. The mean number of MPs in M. modiolus was 0.086 ± 0.031 (SE, n = 6)/g ww (3.5 ± 1.29 (SE) per mussel). In Mytilus spp, the mean number of MPs/g ww was 3.0 ± 0.9 (SE, n = 36) (3.2 ± 0.52 (SE) per mussel), but weight dependent. The visual accuracy of plastic fibres identification was estimated to be between 48 and 50%, using Nile Red staining and FT-IR methodologies, respectively, halving the observed amounts of MPs in wild mussels. We observed an allometric relationship between the number of MPs and the mussels wet weight. Our predictions of MPs ingestion by humans via consumption of mussels is 123 MP particles/y/capita in the UK and can go up to 4620 particles/y/capita in countries with a higher shellfish consumption. By comparison, the risk of plastic ingestion via mussel consumption is minimal when compared to fibre exposure during a meal via dust fallout in a household (13,731–68,415 particles/Y/capita).

Concentrations of selected persistent organic pollutants (POPs) representing three chemical classes (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and the organic pollutant diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), were determined in surface soil samples (0–5 cm) collected at 20 km grid intersects throughout Scotland over a three-year period. Detectable amounts of all chemical classes and most individual congeners were present in all samples. There were no consistent effects of soil or vegetation type, soil carbon content, pH, altitude or distance from centres of population on concentrations which exhibited extreme variation, even in adjacent samples. It is concluded that soil POPs and DEHP concentrations and associated rates of animal and human exposure were highly variable, influenced by multiple, interacting factors, and not clearly related to local sources but possibly related to wet atmospheric deposition and the organic carbon content of the soil.

Muscle tissue was collected from ewes and lambs derived from farms throughout Scotland and sample concentrations of five endocrine disrupting compound groups were determined. Farms of origin were categorised according to geographic region. There were few statistically-significant differences with region or distance from cities. However, the magnitude of the difference between the highest and lowest mean values in ewe muscle from different regions exceeded 30% for 13 of the 15 compounds that were consistently detected in muscle, with animals derived from the industrialised region having the highest mean values for 11 of the 13 compounds. A less marked trend was apparent in the lamb muscle (8 of 13 highest were in the industrialised region). The physiological effects of such small differences in exposure to mixtures of pollutants remain to be determined.

River sediment at a disused lead-zinc mine was analysed to provide an understanding of the chemical nature of the source term for contaminated sediment exported from the site. Changes in concentration and geochemical associations of Pb and Zn were measured using aqua regia digestion and the BCR sequential extraction procedure. Sediment in the immediate vicinity of the mine was highly contaminated with Pb (max. c. 11,000 mg kg⁻¹) and Zn (max. c. 30,000 mg kg⁻¹), but these values declined rapidly within 1 km of the mine due to dilution and hydraulic sorting. Lead fractionation changed from being predominantly in the reducible fraction to being in the acetic acid-extractable fraction, whereas Zn was predominantly in the residual fraction. This material is transported as fine sediment in the river system. Metal concentrations and fractionation have defined the source characteristics of Pb and Zn dispersed from a disused mine and transported by fluvial processes.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a recognised threat to global health. Obtaining data on the prevalence of AMR in environmental bacteria is key to understanding drivers and routes of transmission. Here, 325 Shiga toxin negative deer faecal samples—gathered from across the Scottish mainland—were screened for the presence of AMR Escherichia coli and investigated for potential risk factors associated with AMR occurrence. E. coli with resistance to antimicrobials of clinical health concern, including carbapenems and 3rd generation cephalosporins, were targeted. Ninety-nine percent of samples yielded E. coli, and the prevalence of resistant E. coli at the level of faecal samples was 21.8% (n = 71) for tetracycline, 6.5% (n = 21) for cefpodoxime, 0.3% for ciprofloxacin (n = 1), with no recorded resistance to meropenem. Potential risk factors for tetracycline and cefpodoxime resistance were investigated. The presence of broadleaved woodlands was significantly associated with both AMR phenotypes, which may relate to land use within or around such woodlands. Associated risk factors varied across resistance phenotype and deer species, with proximity or density of horses an indicator of significantly decreased and increased risk, respectively, or tetracycline and cefpodoxime resistance in E. coli from roe deer, but not from red deer. Distance from wastewater treatment plants was a significant risk factor for tetracycline resistance in E. coli from red deer but not from roe deer. Data indicated that AMR E. coli can occur in wild deer populations that are not directly exposed to the selective pressure exerted by antimicrobial treatment. Overall, resistance to critically important antimicrobials was found to be low in the studied population, suggesting no immediate cause for concern regarding human health. Utilising existing culling frameworks, wild deer in Scotland could function well as a sentinel species for the surveillance of AMR in the Scottish environment.