The net global warming potential (NGWP) and net greenhouse gas intensity (NGHGI) of double-rice cropping systems are not well documented. We measured the NGWP and NGHGI including soil organic carbon (SOC) change and indirect emissions (IE) from double-crop rice fields with fertilizing systems in Southern China. These experiments with three different nitrogen (N) application rates since 2012 are as follows: 165 kgN ha⁻¹ for early rice and 225 kgN ha⁻¹ for late rice (N1), which was the local N application rates as the control; 135 kgN ha⁻¹ for early rice and 180 kgN ha⁻¹ for late rice (N2, 20 % reduction); and 105 kgN ha⁻¹ for early rice and 135 kgN ha⁻¹ for late rice (N3, 40 % reduction). Results showed that yields increased with the increase of N application rate, but without significant difference between N1 and N2 plots. Annual SOC sequestration rate under N1 was estimated to be 1.15 MgC ha⁻¹ year⁻¹, which was higher than those under other fertilizing systems. Higher N application tended to increase CH₄ emissions during the flooded rice season and significantly increased N₂O emissions from drained soils during the nonrice season, ranking as N1 > N2 > N3 with significant difference (P < 0.05). Two-year average IE has a huge contribution to GHG emissions mainly coming from the higher N inputs in the double-rice cropping system. Reducing N fertilizer usage can effectively decrease the NGWP and NGHGI in the double-rice cropping system, with the lowest NGHGI obtained in the N2 plot (0.99 kg CO₂-eq kg⁻¹ yield year⁻¹). The results suggested that agricultural economic viability and GHG mitigation can be simultaneously achieved by properly reducing N fertilizer application in double-rice cropping systems.

The Mar Piccolo of Taranto, classified as a ‘Site of National Interest’ (SIN), is a semi-enclosed basin divided into two inlets with lagoon features and sea influences, seriously affected by anthropic activities. In the framework of the RITMARE project, a study has been carried out to evaluate the functionality of this ecosystem. As part of this work, measurements of the water abiotic parameters were performed in order to assess the physical–chemical features of this area after the activation, in the last decade, of treatment plants for various urban and industrial dumping. Seawater intrusions and continental inputs, as well as several submarine freshwater springs, clearly affect physical–chemical characteristics of the water column in the two inlets. This finding suggests that small-scale patterns in water circulation have the potential to influence the chemical properties of the seawater. The comparison with a 20-year dataset reveals a drastic decrease in nutrient concentrations after the year 2000, validating the functionality of the treatment plants. The reduction of nutrient inputs into the basin (up to −90 % in the first inlet characterized by lower hydraulic residence time) has changed the biogeochemical characteristics of the Mar Piccolo from being relatively eutrophic to moderately oligotrophic.

Perfluooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is considered an emerging pollutant because of its wide distribution in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as its potential toxicity to living organisms. Although PFOS environmental levels and the adverse effects on classical model organisms in toxicological studies are well known, including developmental alterations and alteration of oxidative status, its toxicity to free-living species has been seldom investigated. The aim of this study was to assess the potential toxicity of environmental levels of PFOS to yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) embryos under field experimental conditions. In a within-clutch experimental design, we injected two PFOS concentrations (100 ng PFOS/g egg weight and 200 ng PFOS/g egg weight) in ovo soon after laying. Eggs were collected when they reached the cracking stage. We investigated the effects of PFOS treatment, laying order and sex on both morphological and biochemical endpoints of embryos. Specifically, we assessed changes in embryo body mass and tarsus length, as well as in liver and brain mass. Moreover, the imbalance of oxidative status was evaluated in both liver and brain from embryos by measuring total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and total oxidant status (TOS), while the levels of protein carbonyl content (PCO) and DNA fragmentation were measured as oxidative and genetic damage endpoints, respectively. The concentrations of PFOS we tested did not significantly alter the morphological endpoints, independently of laying order and sex. Similarly, embryo oxidative status and oxidative and genetic damage were not significantly affected by PFOS in ovo exposure. These findings suggest that current environmental PFOS levels do not affect early development of yellow-legged gull embryos.

In a greenhouse pot experiment, lettuce plants (Lactuca sativa L.) were grown in a Hg-contaminated sandy soil with and without inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) (a commercial inoculum containing infective propagules of Rhizophagus irregularis and Funneliformis mosseae) amended with different rates of a humic acid (0, 1, and 2 g kg⁻¹ of soil), with the objective of verifying the synergistic effects of the two soil treatments on the Hg tolerance of lettuce plants. Our results indicated that the plant biomass was significantly increased by the combined effect of AMF and humic acid treatments. Addition of humic matter to soil boosted the AMF effect on improving the nutritional plant status, enhancing the pigment content in plant leaves, and inhibiting both Hg uptake and Hg translocation from the roots to the shoots. This was attributed not only to the Hg immobilization by stable complexes with HA and with extraradical mycorrhizal mycelium in soil and root surfaces but also to an improved mineral nutrition promoted by AMF. This work indicates that the combined use of AMF and humic acids may become a useful practice in Hg-contaminated soils to reduce Hg toxicity to crops.

Microbial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) excreted from microorganisms were a complex natural biological polymer mixture of proteins and polysaccharides, which played an important roles in the transport of metals, such as Ag⁺. Electroactive bacteria, is an important class of environmental microorganisms, which can use iron or manganese mineral as terminal electron acceptors to generate energy for biosynthesis and cell maintenance. In this work, the EPS extracted of three electroactive bacteria (Shewanella oneidensis, Aeromonas hydrophila, and Pseudomonas putida) were used for reducing Ag⁺ and forming silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Results showed that all the three microbial EPS could reduce Ag⁺ to AgNPs. The formed AgNPs were characterized in depth by the UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The main components in the EPS from the three electroactive bacteria were analyzed. The presence of cytochrome c in these EPS was confirmed, and they were found to contribute to the reduction of Ag⁺ to AgNPs. The results indicated that the EPS of electroactive bacteria could act as a reductant for AgNPs synthesis and could provide new information to understand the fate of metals and their metal nanoparticles in the natural environments.

Understanding the interaction between microorganisms and fluid dynamics is important for aquatic ecosystems, though only sporadic attention has been focused on this topic in the past. In this study, particular attention was paid to the phenol-degrading bacterial strains Microbacterium oxydans LY1 and Alcaligenes faecalis LY2 subjected to controlled fluid flow under laboratory conditions. These two strains were found to be able to degrade phenols over a concentration range from 50 to 500 mg/L under different turbulence conditions ranging from 0 to 250 rpm. The time it took to reach total phenol degradation decreased when the turbulence was increased in both strains, with increasing energy dissipation rates ranging from 0.110 to 6.241 W/kg, corresponding to changes in the bacterial diffusive sublayer thickness (δ) and enhanced oxygen uptake. Moreover, the maximum specific growth rates of the two strains also increased with the enhancement of turbulence. A model integrating growth inhibition and fluid motion was proposed based on the self-inhibition Haldane model by introducing a turbulence parameter, α. The resulting modified Haldane model was designed to include fluid motion as a variable in the quantification of the physiological responses of microorganisms. This modified Haldane model could be considered a useful laboratory reference when modeling procedures for water environment bioremediation. Graphical abstract Cell nutrition uptake cartoon schematic diagram for M. oxydans LY1 under different turbulent condition (50 and 200 rpm).

Wastewater treatment plants are hot spots for antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). However, limited studies have been conducted to compare the reductions of ARB and ARGs by various biological treatment processes. The study explored the reductions of heterotrophic bacteria resistant to six groups of antibiotics (vancomycin, gentamicin, erythromycin, cephalexin, tetracycline, and sulfadiazine) and corresponding resistance genes (vanA, aacC1, ereA, ampC, tetA, and sulI) by five bench-scale biological reactors. Results demonstrated that membrane bioreactor (MBR) and sequencing batch reactor (SBR) significantly reduced ARB abundances in the ranges of 2.80∼3.54 log and 2.70∼3.13 log, respectively, followed by activated sludge (AS). Biological filter (BF) and anaerobic (upflow anaerobic sludge blanket, UASB) techniques led to relatively low reductions. In contrast, ARGs were not equally reduced as ARB. AS and SBR also showed significant potentials on ARGs reduction, whilst MBR and UASB could not reduce ARGs effectively. Redundancy analysis implied that the purification of wastewater quality parameters (COD, NH₄ ⁺-N, and turbidity) performed a positive correlation to ARB and ARGs reductions.

Coarse (particulate matter (PM)₂.₅–₁₀) and fine (PM₂.₅) fraction of PM samples were collected between December 2014 and February 2015 at an urban sampling site located at the Bolu plain, of the western Black Sea region of Turkey. The collected samples were analyzed in terms of metals (Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Pb, S, Si, Ti, V, and Zn); elemental carbon (EC); and organic carbon (OC). Elevated concentrations measured in this wintertime study were ∼7.8 μg/m³ in sum of PM₂.₅–₁₀ and PM₂.₅ for SO₄ ²⁻ and ∼59.9 μg/m³ in PM₂.₅ for OC. The contributions of primary and secondary OC (POC and SOC, respectively) to total OC mass were 60 and 40 %, respectively, while contribution of SOC to OC increased by up to 74 % in stable atmospheric conditions. The significantly high OC/EC ratio (∼10.1) found in this study relative to other wintertime studies was attributed to increased emissions from residential heating and lower mixing height observed during the study. Two and three factors were resolved by factor analysis for PM₂.₅–₁₀ and PM₂.₅, respectively. Two Saharan dust episodes were observed on 31 January and 1 February, during which crustal PM components such as Mg, Si, and Al increased as much as three times their background concentrations.