PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Knowledge of the occurrence and effects of pollutants on terrestrial top predators will serve to better understand the issue and propose measurements to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems. We reviewed literature on the occurrence and effects of pollutants on terrestrial top predators, which was particularly scarce in comparison to the literature available on aquatic top predators. We have asked the following questions: Does chemical pollution affect terrestrial top predator population? What are the mechanisms (if known) behind chemical pollution effects on top predators? What types of chemical pollution most commonly affect top predator species? RECENT FINDINGS: Pollutants present in the terrestrial top predators are industrial derived (PCBs), pesticides (insecticides and rodenticides), and trace metals (lead and mercury). Recent investigations on the effect of second-generation rodenticides (SGRs) are an emerging topic since these are causing deleterious effects on terrestrial top predator populations. On the other hand, eggshell thinning effects due to the old and known compounds such as DDT are still being observed in avian top predators. Further, lead pollution from spent ammunition affects predators after the hunting season. This information demonstrates that the occurrence and effects of chemical pollutants on terrestrial top predators is a relevant issue for species and ecosystem conservation. Topics such as biomagnification of pollutants, the impact of SGRs on carnivore populations, and alternatives of lead ammunition for hunting are relevant topics that warrant further research.

The aim of this study was to determine the spatial distribution, potential risks and sources of seven heavy metals in sediments of the Yangtze River Estuary. Analyses of 55 sediment samples revealed that the distributions of metals within the YRE were determined by the combined effects of their sources, hydrodynamic conditions, pH and Eh. According to the geoaccumulation index (Igeo) and sediment quality guidelines, Pb, Cd and Cr were present at low levels of pollution, with Cd posing the largest ecological risk. Positive Factor Matrix (PMF) results indicated that Hg, Zn, As, Pb and Cr mainly originated from natural geological background sources, while Cu originated from anthropogenic activities and atmospheric deposition was the source of Cd. These three sources contributed to 53.0%, 32.8% and 14.2%, respectively of total heavy metal concentrations. These results suggest that reducing the emission of Cd would promote a reduction of potential risks in sediments of the YRE.

A dust storm was observed at the Semi-Arid Climate and Environment observatory of Lanzhou University (SACOL) using a dual-wavelength lidar and an aethalometer from 16 March to 22 March 2010. After the arrival of the dust storm, the lidar backscattered signal increased suddenly, the volume depolarization ratio ranged from 0.2 to 0.4. The dust aerosol was detected mainly in a layer below 2.5 km altitude. A higher attenuated backscatter coefficient (0.005–0.02 km−1/sr) was distributed in a lower layer (below 2.5 km) during the dust storm. The evolution of the dust storm was also clearly revealed by the integrated particle backscatter coefficient (BE). Particles in the coarse mode are predominant during the dust storm because Ångström exponent mainly ranged from 0.5 to 1.0. An aethalometer was used to measure the aerosol absorption coefficient as well as aerosol mass concentration. The average mass concentration of aerosol was 1.3 μg/m3 during the dust free period but increased to 1.8 μg/m3 during the dust storm, so the dust aerosol apparently played an important role. The main absorptive particle was black carbon during the dust free period. In addition, the peaks of dust aerosol concentration mainly occurred at around 08:00 and 20:00 (Beijing Time), one reason was that the increase of wind speed result in more dust particles blown up into the atmosphere in the neighborhood of SACOL and another reason was that the boundary layer convection was undeveloped in the morning and the temperature inversion appeared easily in the evening. The trend of the aerosol absorption coefficient was similar to that of mass concentration, and the aerosol absorption coefficient significantly increased during the dust storm.

Atmospheric dry deposition is a major pathway of pollutants removal from the atmosphere to the water and soil ecosystem. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Taiyuan, China, are one class of the most hazardous air pollutants due to the high emission intensity from coal consumption. To better understand the PAHs removing from the atmosphere, 16 USEPA priority PAHs (except for naphthalene) in the particle dry deposition samples were detected from August 2013 to November 2014 at an urban site in Taiyuan. Dry deposition fluxes of particles were estimated as 157.44–358.17 mg/(m2·d), with the highest value in spring and lowest in autumn. Particle dry deposition fluxes of ∑15-PAHs ranged from 2436.20 to 14,967.36 ng/(m2·d), and was the highest in winter and lowest in summer. Higher PAHs particle dry deposition fluxes were related to higher PAHs emission, lower air temperature, less precipitation as well as wind speed. Overall dry deposition velocities of 15-PAHs were 0.056 ± 0.027 cm/s in winter and 0.42 ± 0.050 cm/s in summer, respectively, and high molecular weight PAHs showed low dry deposition velocities. Positive matrix factorization model's results indicated that coking, vehicle exhaust, coal combustion were the primary PAHs sources in particle dry deposition samples, accounting for 18.64%, 26.54% and 54.82% of total PAHs, respectively. The toxic equivalent concentrations (BaPeq) of ∑15-PAHs in particle dry deposition samples was in the range of 0.69–2.94 μg/g, which might be a good explanation to high soil PAHs concentrations reported in Shanxi province, China. Furthermore, this work could prove the significance of coal combustion, and related pollution control works are needed to conduct to alleviate the PAHs pollution situation.

It seems obvious that the noise levels in local communities surrounding airports influences the level of acceptance of an airport. What is not so evident is the effect of non-acoustic factors that increase the societal rejection, like the lack of sensitivity and empathy from the authorities and airport managers, the lack of trust in them, the lack of information and transparency, the perception of being excluded from the decision making and so on. Complementary to the traditional strategies based on the reduction of noise exposure, a community engagement and involvement approach brings new possibilities to manage noise around airports, trying to exploit the non-acoustic factors that have negatively affected the community response. Building trust among the stakeholders is a key factor in this strategy, and it must be based on a long-term, honest, and transparent two-way communication. In the last decade, the huge growth of the information and communication technologies has opened new opportunities that the aviation organizations and stakeholders are starting to explore in depth trying to reduce the degree of rejection of the airport, which may compromise the utilization of existing and future infrastructure. In this review, we make a short introduction on aircraft noise health effects, to focus annoyance and the influence that non-acoustic factors on it. Then, we describe the basis of community engagement as a parallel approach to mitigate noise issues around airports, setting the focus on the noise metrics and the involvement techniques that must be implemented to engage the community.

This study reports plastic ingestion in various fish found from coastal and offshore sites in Scottish marine waters. Coastal samples consisted of three demersal flatfish species (n=128) collected from the East and West coasts of Scotland. Offshore samples consisted of 5 pelagic species and 4 demersal species (n=84) collected from the Northeast Atlantic. From the coastal fish sampled, 47.7% of the gastrointestinal tracts contained macroplastic and microplastic. Of the 84 pelagic and demersal offshore fish, only 2 (2.4%) individuals from different species had ingested plastic identified as a clear polystyrene fibre and a black polyamide fibre. The average number of plastic items found per fish from all locations that had ingested plastic was 1.8 (±1.7) with polyamide (65.3%), polyethylene terephthalate (14.4%) and acrylic (14.4%) being the three most commonly found plastics. This study adds to the existing data on macroplastic and microplastic ingestion in fish species.

Extensive field work was conducted in order to assess the sediment pollution level and potential ecological risk on coral reef ecosystem. Thirty three surface sample was collected using grid sampling technique. The calcium carbonate and organic matter were primarily controlled by the distribution of coral rubbles and seagrass meadows. The concentration of trace elements is higher than the crustal average in few locations and the same result was derived from index calculations. However, the significant concentration of lead was observed throughout the study area. The elevated level of lead is probably due to coal incinerating power plants, and confluence of urban runoff from the nearby coastal areas. Based on the sediment pollution index, the majority of the sediments belongs to highly polluted to dangerously polluted category. The ecological risk indicates that the sediments are under low risk to moderate risk category and this result was proved by correlation analysis.

Environmental vibration and ground-borne noise from light rail transport (LRT) networks consists a major impact on the urban environment. Since experiments are often difficult to obtain and to interpret especially for environmental vibration, designers and researchers generally resource numerical model to assess vibration levels and understand the complex mechanism of generation and propagation of ground vibration. In this paper, some highlights are provided on vehicle/track/soil modeling for railway-induced ground vibration, including the proper definitions of each of these subsystems. The nature of the wheel/rail interaction is also important, especially in urban area, so a case study demonstrates that local unevenness are important sources of vibrations. On the other hand, specialized prediction models and dose-response relationships for airborne rail noise during operation and construction phases of urban light rail transport networks (both underground and surficial) are needed to be evaluated, in order to quantify the impact of the technical characteristics of the noise source, the operation mode with emphasis to speed, the propagation, the implementation of quiet facades, and the number and distribution of high-level noise events. In the present paper, two distinct case studies are presented in order to emphasize the need and the necessity of using proper tools to predict, access, monitor, and evaluate the environmental impact of LRTs to the urban acoustic environment: (a) the new Brussels Regional Express Network and (b) the new Athens Metro Line 3 extension to Piraeus port in an underground tunnel (length 7.6 km).

Our objective was to measure the concentrations of Hg, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Pb, Sb, V and Zn in the body feathers of grey-faced petrel (Pterodroma gouldi), fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia), little shearwater (Puffinus assimilis) and common diving petrel (Pelecanoides urinatrix) from breeding colonies in New Zealand between 2006 and 2013. The mean Hg concentration (36.48ppm; SD=9.59) in grey-faced petrel feathers was approximately 8.5 to 14 times that detected in the other three species sampled. We detected no trend or differences in Hg concentrations in grey-faced petrels over the 8years of this study, but Hg concentrations varied between breeding colonies although there was no strong relationship with latitude. The elevated Hg concentrations detected in grey-faced petrels could pose a risk to the breeding performance of grey-faced petrels and the customary harvest of chicks by Māori (New Zealand's indigenous peoples).