The aim of this study was to evaluate bacterial and fungal aerosol concentrations at the holy mosque (Al-Masjid Al-Haram). Air samples were collected from different locations inside and outside the holy mosque, during the month of Ramadan-2011 (the fasting month), using a portable Air-port MD8 gelatin filter sampler. Trypticase soya agar and Capek's dox agar media were used to count bacteria and fungi, respectively. The mean concentrations of airborne bacteria and fungi ranged between 105–106 colony forming unit per cubic meter of air (CFU/m3) outside, and ∼102–105 CFU/m3 inside locations. The highest outside bacterial concentrations 106 CFU/m3 were found at the Al Umra, Al Fatah and eastern plazas, and the highest inside fungal concentrations ∼105 CFU/m3 were found at the courtyard, expansion of 1st floor, and roof. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were found between bacterial and fungal concentrations inside and outside sampling locations, higher concentrations shifted towards to outside locations. Significant differences were also found between the bacterial and fungal concentrations inside–unclosed and semi-closed (P < 0.05) with inside-closed locations. Gram-positive bacteria, Bacillus and Micrococcus, and fungi, Aspergillus niger were the dominant microbial aerosol genera. The obtained data is considered a step to make up the gap about airborne microbial contamination inside the holy mosque, and microbial air quality should be studied along over the year at the holy mosque in the future.

Near-road measurements for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) using passive air samplers were collected weekly in traffic exposure zones (TEZs) in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina (USA) during Fall 2014. Land use regression (LUR) analysis and pairwise comparisons of TEZs showed NO2 concentrations were associated with TEZs. Greater NO2 levels occurred in delay, high volume, and bus route sections versus higher signal light density, urbanized, and “remainder of study” areas. Comparison of near-road passively sampled NO2 concentrations by TEZ agreed with previous real-time on-road comparisons for NO2 in these TEZs.

16 PAHs in Jiaozhou Bay wetland soils were analyzed by GC/MS. The potential sources and contributions were apportioned by Unmix and PMF models. The total concentrations of PAHs ranged from 176.1 to 563.3ng/g with a mean of 345.3ng/g. 2- and 3- rings PAHs were the dominant species accounting for 34.7–87.3% of the total PAHs. The similarities and differences of sources and contributions estimated by Unmix and PMF models were discussed. Three common sources (petrogenic source, coking oven and coal combustion) identified by two models, contributed 43.2%, 39.2% and 12.6% by Unmix and 33.5%, 29.1% and 16.0% by PMF to the total PAHs, respectively. In addition, diesel emission source (5.0%) by Unmix and a mixed source of diesel emission and natural gas burning (21.4%) by PMF were also extracted. It is essential to apply multiple source apportionment techniques to estimate potential source and contributions in further study.

A geographically extensive baseline survey of sediment contamination was undertaken at twenty nine locations around Kuwait. Samples were assessed in relation to a wide range of industrial pollutants, including metals, PAHs, PCBs, PBDEs and HBCDs. The data generated indicated that levels of pollutants were generally low and below commonly applied sediment quality guidelines (SQGs). However, naturally high background concentrations of certain metals present in sediment from the region may prohibit the direct assessment against some of the routinely applied SQGs. Hot spots of contamination were identified for PAHs, PCBs and PBDEs, that were mainly associated with the Shuaiba Industrial Area, located south of the city, and known to contain a diverse mix of both light and heavy industry.

This paper reports the impact of oil spills and tar-ball pollution on the coastal ecosystem of Goa. The factors responsible for degrading the marine ecosystem of the Goan coastline are analyzed. Uncontrolled activities were found to degrade the marine and coastal biodiversity, in turn polluting all beaches. This had a direct impact on the Goan economy through a decline in tourism. The government must adopt the necessary control measures to restore Goan beaches and the surrounding coastal areas.

Fish assemblages are considered indicators of aquatic ecosystem quality. Based on how fish communities respond to anthropogenic pressures, we developed a multimetric fish index for evaluating the health of both coastal and transitional waters. Fish data were collected along the Polish coast in the years 2011, 2013 and 2014 using different types of gear. Redundancy analysis showed that the most important environmental factor affecting fish community was salinity. Responses to anthropogenic disturbances of 20 candidate metrics were tested by generalized linear models, taking into account salinity, sampling protocol and the proxy of human pressures described by the Baltic Sea Impact Index (BSII). Five selected metrics were combined in a Multimetric Index, which showed negative significant correlation with BSII. The index presented herein appeared to be a good tool for assessing the ecological state of highly impacted Polish transitional and coastal areas and complies with the Water Framework Directive requirements.

A systematic study was conducted on the distribution characteristics of heavy metals and on associated influencing factors in sediments off the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula, China, based on the results of a heavy metals analysis on 157 surface sediment samples from coastal waters of the study area and on 46 samples from surrounding rivers flowing into the sea. An environmental quality assessment of heavy metals was performed using the Nemerow index. The results show that the distribution characteristics of sediment heavy metals in coastal waters outside of Qingdao can be divided into three classes: (1) Class I – Cr, Cu and Zn, with high-value areas extending from the northeast to the southwest in a banded or tongue-like pattern; (2) Class II – As, Cd and Pb, with high-value areas mainly distributed off the southeastern coast of Mt. Lao; and (3) Class III – Hg only, with high-value areas mainly in the northern area of Jiaozhou Bay. Integrated assessment based on the Nemerow index reveals that heavy metals pollution has occurred in surface sediments in a number of coastal water areas outside of Qingdao. This pollution is mainly found off the southeastern coast of Mt. Lao and in the northeastern section of Jiaozhou Bay. Results show that grain size of surface sediments, surrounding rivers and human activities are the main reasons for the element distribution pattern.

The exotic emission of ballast water has threatened the coastal ecological environment and people’s health in many countries. This paper firstly introduces pulse intense light to treat ballast water. 99.9±0.09% inactivation of Heterosigma akashiwo and 99.9±0.16% inactivation of Pyramimonas sp. are observed under treatment conditions of 350V pulse peak voltage, 15Hz pulse frequency, 5ms pulse width and 1.78L/min flow rate. The energy consumption of the self-designed pulse intense light treatment system is about 2.90–5.14 times higher than that of the typical commercial UV ballast water treatment system. The results indicate that pulse intense light is an effective technique for ballast water treatment, while it is only a competitive one when drastic decreasing in energy consumption is accomplished.

Beach nourishment practices are a key aspect in coastal management plans for stakeholders and communities. Stemming from a concrete case-study (Tuscany), this research analyzes: (i) principal problems of current law regulating dredging, (ii) gaps in technical guidelines, (iii) advantages of integrated approaches to the decision-making process, (iv) possible applicable nourishment options and their costs and benefits. Our results show that sand compatibility is driven mainly by grain-size stability due to the occurrence of lower pollution levels in off-shore deposits than in threatened beaches, thus current laws and guidelines should be improved to fill the evident gap in the evaluation process and to include a more complete approach to data evaluation and an integrated approach to ecotoxicity evaluation, which is relevant in cases of geochemical anomalies. The cost-benefit analysis performed indicates that only dredging intended to manage more than 1millionm3 of aggregates would represent a real advantage for local communities.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings of 2014 were held from November 7–12. In order to guarantee the good air quality of Beijing, the Chinese government has taken the most stringent emission reduction measures to date. This study analyzed and compared the air quality of Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) regions just before and after APEC meetings. The observations show that the APEC emission reduction measures have effectively improved the air quality of BTH, especially Beijing. Compared with normal emission period (NEP), the PM2.5, PM10, O3, SO2, NO2 and CO concentrations of Beijing during emission reduction periods were reduced by about 58%, 49%, 9%, 34%, 23%, and 4%. The air quality in Tianjin and Hebei were improved significantly, but the rises were smaller than ones in Beijing. During the APEC meetings, due to the weak southerly wind the contribution of backward trajectories from the neighboring air pollution areas of Beijing was less than 10%. The stringent emission reduction measures and favorable weather conditions ensured the good air qualities during the APEC meetings.