Particulate Matter (PM₂.₅) pollution in China has been a primary concern for public health in recent years, which requires banks to appropriately control their credit supply to industries with high pollution, high energy consumption, and surplus capacity. For this reason, this paper examines economic determinants of PM₂.₅ concentrations and incorporates the spatial spillover effect of bank credit by employing the spatial Durbin model (SDM) under the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology framework. Using China's provincial dataset from 1998 to 2016, the main findings are as follows: First, there is evidence in support of spatial dependence of PM₂.₅ concentrations and their inverted U-shaped relationship with economic growth in China. Second, PM₂.₅ concentrations in a province tend to increase as the level of its own urbanization increases, but they decrease as its own human capital and bank credit increase. Meanwhile, the level of neighboring urbanization positively influences a province's PM₂.₅ concentrations, whereas neighboring population size, industrialization, trade openness, and bank credit present negative impacts. Third, indirect effects of the SDM indicate significant and negative spatial spillover effect of bank credit on PM₂.₅ concentrations. These findings implicate policies on reforming economic growth, urbanization, human capital and bank credit to tackle PM₂.₅ pollution in China from a cross-provincial collaboration perspective.

The development of reliable measures of exposure to traffic-related air pollution is crucial for the evaluation of the health effects of transportation. Land-use regression (LUR) techniques have been widely used for the development of exposure surfaces, however these surfaces are often highly sensitive to the data collected. With the rise of inexpensive air pollution sensors paired with GPS devices, we witness the emergence of mobile data collection protocols. For the same urban area, can we achieve a ‘universal’ model irrespective of the number of locations and sampling visits? Can we trade the temporal representation of fixed-point sampling for a larger spatial extent afforded by mobile monitoring? This study highlights the challenges of short-term mobile sampling campaigns in terms of the resulting exposure surfaces. A mobile monitoring campaign was conducted in 2015 in Montreal; nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels at 1395 road segments were measured under repeated visits. We developed LUR models based on sub-segments, categorized in terms of the number of visits per road segment. We observe that LUR models were highly sensitive to the number of road segments and to the number of visits per road segment. The associated exposure surfaces were also highly dissimilar.

Harvesting of marine biomass for various applications may generate ecosystem services that currently lack a market price. One of these is nutrient uptake, which could counteract eutrophication. Market-based instruments (MBIs) such as cap & trade, compensatory mitigation, and payment for ecosystem services could help internalize such positive externalities. However, activities of the blue bioeconomy are diverse. We show that identifiable market characteristics can provide guidance concerning when to use these instruments and not. We find that the activities most suitable for MBIs are those that have positive environmental impacts but that are not (yet) financially viable. For activities that are already profitable on the biomass market, ensuring ‘additionality’ may be a significant problem for MBIs, especially for cap & trade systems or compensatory mitigation. We provide an overview of how some current biomass options fit into this framework and give suggestions on which biomass types to target.

The increasing availability of human-made structure in the oceans coupled with climate changes may lead to the range expansion of species able to disperse by rafting. In this study, we report on zoantharian species of genera Isaurus, Palythoa, Umimayanthus and Zoanthus covering artificial substrates in locations in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Moreover, we reviewed observations of additional zoantharians as macrofouling organisms, and discuss the possible role of rafting in the dispersal of this cosmopolitan group. Traits reported to some zoantharian species, such as hermaphroditism and resistance to desiccation, support their dispersal potential by drifting attached to floating objects. Further reports of zoantharian species covering floating artificial structures and natural debris are needed to increase our knowledge of dispersal mechanisms in the oceans. Additionally, this information is essential to monitor and manage possible exotic species invasions, especially for zoantharian species that are common in the aquarium trade.

This paper looks into the causal association between economic growth, CO2 emission, trade volume, and human development indicator for Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC countries) during 1980–2013. Following a generalized method of moments (GMM) technique, we have found out that bidirectional causality exists between CO2 emissions and economic growth. Feedback hypothesis is supported between CO2 emissions and human development, trade volume and human development, economic growth, and human development, and CO2 emissions and trade volume. Apart from finding out the unidirectional association from trade volume to economic growth, this study also validated the existence of Environmental Kuznets curve. Empirical findings of the study substantiate that the policymakers of the BRIC nations must focus on the green energy initiatives, either by in-house development or by technology transfer. This movement will allow them to control the ambient air pollution prevalent in these nations.

The Florida Everglades is a unique and fragile coastal wetland ecosystem that is undergoing a decades-long, large-scale ecological restoration. This freshwater ecosystem in southern Florida has been stressed by diminishment of freshwater flow and water diversion due to agricultural activities and urbanization. The health of this vast ecosystem is also threatened by the presence of a large number of invasive species, including the Burmese python. These large constrictors were introduced to South Florida through the pet trade; first sightings in Everglades National Park occurred in the 1980s. Pythons are naturally camouflaged in the Everglades, which turns out to be an excellent environment for propagation of these huge predators. This top predator has severely disrupted the food web, consuming mammals, birds and even other reptiles. In this paper, the current population control efforts implemented by various management agencies are assessed. While more paid professional hunters should be retained to join the search and removal efforts, innovative control measures are necessary.

Pearl farming sustainability in South Central Pacific (SCP) atolls strongly depends on water quality and renewal. These factors are partly controlled by the wave conditions that impact the lagoon circulation. To characterize the wave conditions around 83 SCP atolls including those hosting pearl farming activities, we used 18 years of WaveWatchIII simulation with a grid refined from 50 to 5 km resolution. Three regional wave regimes are statistically identified: two associated with long distant swells originating from mid-latitude storms, and one with local trade winds. All regimes occur with a relatively high frequency (22–44%), but with a marked seasonality. Wave conditions are also strongly modified locally during their propagation between the archipelagoes. Western and southern isolated atolls generally have a single regime all around their rims. In contrast, central Tuamotu atolls experience different regimes depending on their levels of protection. These results help understanding atoll hydrodynamics, which has implications for their management.

Shark fin is one of Asia's most valued dried seafood products, with over 80 shark species traded in Hong Kong [HK]. We analyzed processed shark fins from mainland China and HK markets (n = 267) for mercury, methyl‑mercury, and arsenic, to inform consumers, policy makers and public health officials on the health risks of ingesting fins from nine of the most common shark species in the fin trade. Fins from all species frequently exceed Hg limits established by HK authorities. Most of the mercury found is in the form of methyl‑mercury (69.0 ± 33.5%). Five species surpass methyl‑mercury PTWIs and blue shark fins can exceed inorganic arsenic BMDL₀.₅. Species-of-origin was a significant predictor of heavy metal concentrations, with higher mercury concentrations associated with coastal sharks and lower arsenic levels found with increasing shark trophic level. Species-specific labeling would help consumers avoid shark fin products that pose the highest health risk.

Metal contamination in fish is a concern worldwide, including in the Arabian/Persian Gulf region. This review summarizes the findings from 55 papers about metal concentrations in Gulf fish. Metal concentrations in muscle tissue were screened against the most recent maximum allowable levels (MALs) for fish in international commerce. We identified metals, fish species, and locations where concentrations exceeded the MALs. For some metals, recent MALs have been set to lower concentrations as more toxicological data have become available. Mean fish tissue concentrations exceeded the MAL in 13% (arsenic), 76% (cadmium), 56% (lead), and 10% (mercury) of species means. We identified 13 fish species with the potential to serve as bioindicators of metal contamination for use in four Gulf habitats: pelagic, benthopelagic, demersal, and coral reefs. Recommendations are provided for a regional approach to improve consistency of sampling, data analysis and reporting of metal concentrations in Gulf fish.

Non-indigenous species (NIS) can cause substantial change in ecosystems and as marine invasives they can become a major threat to coastal and subtidal habitats. In September 2017 previously unknown and apparently NIS soft corals were detected on a shallow subtidal tropical rocky reef at Ilha Grande Bay, southeast Brazil. The present study aims to identify the species, quantify their distribution, abundance, and their interactions with native species. The most abundant NIS belonged to the recently described genus Sansibia (family Xeniidae) and the less common species was identified as Clavularia cf. viridis (family Clavulariidae). They were found along 170 m of shoreline at all depths where hard substrate was available. Sansibia sp. dominated deeper communities, associated positively with some macroalgal and negatively with the zoantharian Palythoa caribaeorum, which probably provided greater biotic resistance to invasion. Both species are of Indo-Pacific origin and typical of those ornamentals found in the aquarium trade.