Perennial plant communities in the proximity of metal smelters and refineries may receive substantial inputs of base metal particulate as well as sulphate from the co-emission of sulphur dioxide. The Ni refinery at Port Colborne (Canada) operated by Inco (now Vale Canada Ltd.) emitted Ni, Co and Cu, along with sulphur dioxide, between 1918 and 1984. The objectives were to determine if vascular plant community composition, including standing litter, in twenty-one woodlots on clay or organic soil, were related to soil Ni concentration which decreased in concentration with distance from the Ni refinery. The soil Ni concentration in the clay woodlots ranged from 16 to 4130 mg Ni/kg, and in the organic woodlots, ranged from 98 to 22,700 mg Ni/kg. The concentrations of Co and Cu in the soils were also elevated, and highly correlated with soil Ni concentration. In consequence, each series of woodlots constituted a ‘fixed ratio ray’ of metal mixture exposure. For each of the woodlots, there were 16 independent measurements of ‘woodlot status’ which were correlated with elevated soil Ni concentration. Of the 32 combinations, there were eight linear correlations with soil Ni concentration, considerably more than would be expected by chance alone at a p-value of 0.05. With the exception of mean crown rating for shrubs at the clay sites, the correlations were consistent with the hypothesis that increased soil metal concentrations would be correlated with decreased diversity, plant community health or fitness, and increased accumulation of litter. Only five of the eight linear correlations were from the organic woodlots, suggesting that the observations were not confounded with soil type nor range in soil metal concentrations.

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi contribute to the survival of host trees on metal-rich soils by reducing the transfer of toxic metals into roots. However, little is known about the ability of ECM fungi to accumulate elements in ectomycorrhizae (ECMs). Here we report Ag, As, Cd, Cl, Cu, Sb, V, and Zn contents in wild-grown Norway spruce ECMs collected in a smelter-polluted area at Lhota near Příbram, Czech Republic. The ECMs data were compared with the element concentrations determined in the corresponding non-mycorrhizal fine roots, soils, and soil extracts. Bioaccumulation factors were calculated to differentiate the element accumulation ability of ECMs inhabited by different mycobionts, which were identified by ITS rDNA sequencing. Among the target elements, the highest contents were observed for Ag, Cl, Cd, and Zn; Imleria badia ECMs showed the highest capability to accumulate these elements. ECMs of Amanita muscaria, but not of other species, accumulated V. The analysis of the proportions of I. badia and A. muscaria mycelia in ECMs by using species-specific quantitative real-time PCR revealed variable extent of the colonization of roots, with median values close to 5% (w/w). Calculated Ag, Cd, Zn and Cl concentrations in the mycelium of I. badia ECMs were 1 680, 1 510, 2 670, and 37,100 mg kg−1 dry weight, respectively, indicating substantial element accumulation capacity of hyphae of this species in ECMs. Our data strengthen the idea of an active role of ECM fungi in soil-fungal-plant interactions in polluted environments.

Carbon dioxide is one of the main soil gases released silently and permanently in diffuse degassing areas, both in volcanic and non-volcanic zones. In the volcanic islands of the Azores (Portugal) several villages are located over diffuse degassing areas. Lethal indoor CO2 concentrations (higher than 10 vol %) were measured in a shelter located at Furnas village, inside the caldera of the quiescent Furnas Volcano (S. Miguel Island). Hazardous CO2 concentrations were detected not only underground, but also at the ground floor level. Multivariate regression analysis was applied to the CO2 and environmental time series recorded between April 2008 and March 2010 at Furnas village. The results show that about 30% of the indoor CO2 variation is explained by environmental variables, namely barometric pressure, soil water content and wind speed. The highest indoor CO2 concentrations were recorded during bad weather conditions, characterized by low barometric pressure together with rainfall periods and high wind speed. In addition to the spike-like changes observed on the CO2 time series, long-term oscillations were also identified and appeared to represent seasonal variations. In fact, indoor CO2 concentrations were higher during winter period when compared to the dry summer months. Considering the permanent emission of CO2 in various volcanic regions of the world, CO2 hazard maps are crucial and need to be accounted by the land-use planners and authorities.

We utilize the distribution of PM2.5 concentration and population in large cities at the global scale to illustrate the relationship between urbanization and urban air quality. We found: 1) The relationship varies greatly among continents and countries. Large cities in North America, Europe, and Latin America have better air quality than those in other continents, while those in China and India have the worst air quality. 2) The relationships between urban population size and PM2.5 concentration in large cities of different continents or countries were different. PM2.5 concentration in large cities in North America, Europe, and Latin America showed little fluctuation or a small increasing trend, but those in Africa and India represent a “U” type relationship and in China represent an inverse “U” type relationship. 3) The potential contribution of population to PM2.5 concentration was higher in the large cities in China and India, but lower in other large cities.

Insufficient understanding of the hydrogeochemistry of aquifers makes it necessary to conduct a preliminary water quality assessment in the southern region of Ordos Basin, an arid area in the world. In this paper, the major ions of groundwater have been studied aiming at evaluating the hydrogeochemical processes that probably affect the groundwater quality using 150 samples collected in 2015. The two prevalent hydrochemical facies, HCO3Mg·Na·Ca and HCO3Mg·Ca·Na type water, have been identified based on the hydrochemical analysis from Piper trilinear diagram. Compositional relations have been used to assess the origin of solutes and confirm the predominant hydrogeochemical processes responsible for the various ions in the groundwater. The results show that the ions are derived from leaching effect, evaporation and condensation, cation exchange, mixing effect and human activities. Finally groundwater quality was assessed with single factor and set pair methods, the results indicate that groundwater quality in the study region is generally poor in terms of standard of national groundwater quality. The results obtained in this study will be useful to understand the groundwater quality status for effective management and utilization of the groundwater resource.

Reports on the effects of PM10 from dust storm on lung cells are limited. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the chemical composition and in vitro toxicological impacts of PM10 suspensions, its water-soluble fraction, and the solvent-extractable organics extracted from Middle Eastern Dust storms on the human lung epithelial cell (A549). Samples of dust storms and normal days (PM10 < 200 μg m⁻³) were collected from December 2012 until June 2013 in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province in Iran. The chemical composition and cytotoxicity were analyzed by ICP- OES and Lactase Dehydrogenase (LDH) reduction assay, respectively. The results showed that PM10 suspensions, their water-soluble fraction and solvent-extractable organics from both dust storm and normal days caused a decrease in the cell viability and an increase in LDH in supernatant in a dose–response manner. Although samples of normal days showed higher cytotoxicity than those of dust storm at the highest treated dosage, T Test showed no significant difference in cytotoxicity between normal days and dust event days (Pvalue > 0.05). These results led to the conclusions that dust storm PM10 as well as normal day PM10 could lead to cytotoxicity, and the organic compounds (PAHs) and the insoluble particle-core might be the main contributors to cytotoxicity. Our results showed that cytotoxicity and the risk of PM10 to human lung may be more severe during dust storm than normal days due to inhalation of a higher mass concentration of airborne particles. Further research on PM dangerous fractions and the most responsible components to make cytotoxicity in exposed cells is recommended.

From November 2014 to October 2015, the concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), O3 and NOx were simultaneously monitored by using online instruments at the air monitoring station belonged to Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau (TEPB). The results indicated that VOCs concentrations were higher in autumn and lower in spring, while O3 concentrations were higher in summer, and lower in winter. The diurnal variations of VOCs and NOx (NO2 plus NO) showed opposite tendency comparing to that of O3. The concentrations of alkanes were higher (the average of 18.2 ppbv) than that of aromatics (5.3 ppbv) and alkenes (5.2 ppbv), however, the alkenes and aromatics made larger contributions to ozone because of their high reactivity. Tianjin belonged to the VOC-limited region during most of seasons (except summer) according to the VOC/NOx ratios (the 8:1 threshold). The automobile exhaust, industrial emission, liquefied petroleum gas/natural gas (LPG/NG), combustion, gasoline evaporation, internal combustion engine emission and solvent usage were identified as major sources of VOCs by Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model in Tianjin, and the contributions to VOCs for the entire year were 23.1%, 19.9%, 18.6%, 10.6%, 8.7%, 5.4% and 4.7%, respectively. The conditional probability function (CPF) analysis indicated that the contributing directions of automobile exhaust and industrial emission were mainly affected by source distributions, and that of other sources might be mainly affected by wind direction. The backward trajectory analysis indicated that the trajectory of air mass originated from Mongolia, which reflected the features of large-scale and long-distance air transport, and that of beginning in Jiangsu, Shandong and Tianjin, which showed the features of small-scale and short-distance. Tianjin, Beijing, Hebei and Northwest of Shandong were identified as major potential source-areas of VOCs by using potential source contribution function (PSCF) and concentration-weighted trajectory (CWT) models.

Understanding the evolution of aerosols in the atmosphere is of great importance for improving air quality and reducing aerosol-related uncertainties in global climate simulations. Here, a unique haze episode at a regional receptor site near the East China Sea was examined as a case study of the aging process of atmospheric aerosols during transport. An increase in photochemical age from 5 h to more than 25 h and a progressive increase in the fitted mean particle diameter from 70 nm to approximately 300 nm were observed. According to the pollution features and meteorology conditions involved, pollution accumulation (PA), sea breeze (SB), and land breeze (LB) periods were identified. Concentrations of black carbon (BC), hydrocarbon-like organic aerosols (HOA), semi-volatile oxidized organic aerosols (SV-OOA), and nitrate increased by 7-fold up to 39-fold when the air masses passed through Taizhou, a nearby city. In addition, nitrate and SV-OOA dominated the aerosol composition in the urban outflow plumes (52% and 18%, respectively), yet they gradually decreased in concentration during transport. In contrast, sulfate and the low-volatile oxidized organic aerosols (LV-OOA) exhibited more regional footprints and potentially have similar formation mechanisms. The atomic oxygen-to-carbon (O/C) ratio also increased from 0.45 to 0.9, thereby suggesting that rapid formation of highly oxidized secondary organic aerosols (SOA) occurred during transport. Overall, these results provide valuable insight into the evolution of the chemical and physical features of aerosol pollution during transport and also highlight the need for regulatory controls of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and VOCs to improve air quality on different scales.

In the last decades a dramatic loss of Apis mellifera hives has been reported in both Europe and USA. Research in this field is oriented towards identifying a synergy of contributing factors, i.e. pathogens, pesticides, habitat loss and pollution to the weakening of the hive. Cadmium (Cd) is a hazardous anthropogenic pollutant whose effects are proving to be increasingly lethal. Among the multiple damages related to Cd contamination, some studies report that it causes immunosuppression in various animal species. The aim of this paper is to determine whether contamination by Cd, may have a similar effect on the honey bees’ immunocompetence. Our results, obtained by immune challenge experiments and confirmed by structural and ultrastructural observations show that such metal causes a reduction in immunocompetence in 3 days Cd exposed bees. As further evidence of honey bee response to Cd treatment, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (X-EDS) has revealed the presence of zinc (Zn) in peculiar electron-dense granules in fat body cells. Zn is a characteristic component of metallothioneins (MTs), which are usually synthesized as anti-oxidant and scavenger tools against Cd contamination. Our findings suggest that honey bee colonies may have a weakened immune system in Cd polluted areas, resulting in a decreased ability in dealing with pathogens.

Approximately 40% of the volume of domestic sewage generated in the São Paulo State is untreated and released into water bodies, causing serious pollution problems that affect the water quality and especially the suspended sediments transported by rivers. Thus, this paper investigates the seasonal influence on the origin and fluxes of Cu, Co, Cr, Zn, Cd, Ni, Sc and particulate organic matter (POM) in sediments transported by a disturbed watershed in the São Paulo State, i.e. the Sorocaba River basin. POM was characterized using particulate organic carbon, particulate organic nitrogen, C:N ratio and δ13C and δ15N stable isotopic composition. Eight sample collections of fine suspended sediments (FSS) were carried out at the mouth of the Sorocaba River from July 2009 to May 2010. During the study period, the discharge rate followed the seasonal variation trend of the past 25 years. Zn was the most abundant trace element in the FSS, followed by Cr, Cu, Ni, Co, Sc and Cd. There was a higher concentration of trace elements during the dry season, except for Sc and Co, which did not vary seasonally. The POM showed the same trend, with higher concentrations during the dry season. The calculated enrichment factors and geoaccumulation index indicated that most of the trace elements are of geogenic origin, except for Zn, which showed significant anthropogenic contributions (55%). The elemental and isotopic analysis of C and N and C:N ratio indicated that the anthropogenic origin of POM found in the FSS is related mainly to domestic sewage (97%), while the significant correlation found between the concentrations of Zn and POM indicates that the main anthropogenic source of Zn is related to this domestic sewage. The FSS load transported during the study period was of 373,194 t y−1, of which 87% occurred during the rainy season.