China continues to suffer from severe acid deposition, despite the government implying a series of policies to control air pollution. In this study, rainwater samples were collected from 2011 to 2016 in Sichuan province to measure the pH values and the concentrations of nine inorganic ions (SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻, NH₄⁺, Cl⁻, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, and F⁻), and then to investigate their spatiotemporal variations. Besides, the dominant sources for the acidic ions in the precipitation were also revealed by statistical model. The results showed that the rainwater continued to be highly acidic, and the Volume-Weighted Mean (VWM) pH value was calculated to be 5.18 during 2011 and 2016. NH₄⁺, Ca²⁺, NO₃⁻, and SO₄²⁻ were the dominant water-soluble inorganic ions, accounting for 79.2% of the total ions on average. The remarkable decrease in NO₃⁻ and SO₄²⁻ concentrations (from 75.9 to 54.3 μeq L⁻¹ and from 285 to 145 μeq L⁻¹, respectively) resulted in an increase in the pH value of rainwater from 5.24 in 2011 to 5.70 in 2016. The concentrations of SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻, F⁻, Na⁺, and K⁺ showed remarkably seasonal variation, with the highest value observed in winter, followed by spring and autumn, and the lowest value observed in summer. High VWM concentration of these ions in winter were mainly due to adverse meteorological conditions (e.g., rare rainfall, lower planetary boundary height, and stagnant air) and intensive anthropogenic emissions. SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻, and F⁻ ions peaked in the southeastern Sichuan province, which is a typical industrial region. NH₄⁺ concentrations decreased from 268 μeq L⁻¹ in the east to 10.4 μeq L⁻¹ in the western Sichuan province, which could be related to the development of agriculture in the eastern Sichuan province. Ca²⁺ peaked in southeastern Sichuan province due to intensive construction activities and severe stone desertification. On the basis of Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) analysis, four sources of inorganic ions in rainwater were identified, including anthropogenic source, crust, biomass burning, and aging sea salt aerosol. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) was used to find the spatial correlations between the socio-economic factors and ions in the rainwater. At the regional scale, the influence of fertilizer consumption and Gross Agricultural Production (GAP) on NH₄⁺ increased from east to west; moreover the influence of Gross Industrial Production (GIP) on SO₄²⁻ and NO₃⁻ also increased.

Antibiotic resistance among gram-negative bacteria is increasingly becoming a problem of global concern. Particularly problematic is the emergence of resistance to last-resort antibiotics such as carbapenems and colistin. The increasing number of reports on the plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene mcr-1 in isolates worldwide is raising concerns for the future usefulness of this class of antibiotics. Dissemination of mcr-1 is believed to have originated mainly from animal breeding, however, the role of the environment as a transmission source is not yet fully understood. In the current study, 89 extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli isolated from 231 samples from different environmental sources in 12 villages in a rural area of Shandong, China, were screened for mcr-1. 17 (19.1%) mcr-1-positive isolates were found from different environmental sources, aggregated in 6 villages. Plasmids of three different Inc-groups carrying mcr-1 were confirmed, indicating that the widespread geographical distribution of mcr-1 in the local area is due to a number of different plasmids. Additionally, almost a third (29.4%) of the isolates carried virulence factors associated to intestinal pathogenic E. coli. These results illustrate the high complexity of the transmission patterns of mcr-1 among different environmental matrices on a local scale and the potential for the environment to facilitate dissemination and emergence of antibiotic-resistant and virulent strains of bacteria.

A novel carbonaceous material (NCM), prepared by the pyrolyzation of the oily sludge of tank bottom, was proposed to remove Cr(VI) from a synthetic solution for the first time. The effects of initial Cr(VI) concentration, NCM dosage and initial solution pH on Cr(VI) removal and the adsorption kinetics, the adsorption isothem were investigated. The removal mechanism was studied by comparing the surface properties of NCM before and after the Cr(VI) removal. The results showed that NCM can effectively remove Cr(Ⅵ) from the synthetic solution with the increase of solution pH at equilibrium. At the initial Cr(Ⅵ) concentrations of 40, 100, 150 and 250 mg/L and NCM dosages of 1, 3, 6 and 8 g/L with initial solution pH of 2, the removal efficiency of Cr(VI) was 95.5, 96.8, 95.2 and 81.2%, and the solution pH at equilibrium reached 2.3, 3.5, 5.8 and 7.5, respectively. NCM was suitable for Cr(Ⅵ) removal while the initial Cr(VI) concentration was less than 100 mg/L and initial solution pH was lower than 2.5. Most of Cr(VI) was removed by the reduction of Fe2+ and S2− in NCM to Cr(III) and with the generation of stable FeCr2O4. Some Cr(VI) may be removed by reacting with Fe2+ and Ca2+ to produce CaCrO4 and FeCrO4 on the NCM surface. The dissolution of CaAl2Si2O8 and CaS in the solution increased the solution pH at equilibrium. NCM has been proved to be a material with dual functions both chemical reduction and adsorption.

Environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) are defined as organic free radicals stabilized on or inside particles. They are persistent because of the protection by the particles and show significant toxicity to organisms. Increasing research interests have been attracted to study the potential environmental implications of EPFRs. Because of their different physical forms from conventional contaminants, it is not applicable to use the commonly used technique and strategy to predict and assess the behavior and risks of EPFRs. Current studies on EPFRs are scattered and not systematic enough to draw clear conclusions. Therefore, this review is organized to critically discuss the current research progress on EPFRs, highlighting their occurrence and transport, generation mechanisms, as well as their environmental implications (including both toxicity and reactivity). EPFR formation and stabilization as affected by the precursors and environmental factors are useful breakthrough to understand their formation mechanisms. To better understand the major differences between EPFRs and common contaminants, we identified the unique processes and/or mechanisms related to EPFRs. The knowledge gaps will be also addressed to highlight the future research while summarizing the research progress. Quantitative analysis of the interactions between organic contaminants and EPFRs will greatly improve the predictive accuracy of the multimedia environmental fate models. In addition, the health risks will be better evaluated when considering the toxicity contributed by EFPRs.

Air pollution has been identified as a major cause of environmental and human health damage. O₃ is an oxidative pollutant that causes leaf symptoms in sensitive plants. This study aims to adjust a multilinear model for the monitoring of O₃ in subtropical climatic conditions by associating O₃ concentrations with measurements of morphological leaf traits in tobacco plants and different environmental variables. The plants were distributed into five areas (residential, urban or industrial) in the southern region of Brazil and exposed during 14 periods, of 14 days each, during the years of 2014 and 2015. The environmental variables and leaf traits during the exposure periods were described by mean, median, standard deviation and minimum and maximum values. Spearman correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were applied on data from exposure periods. Leaf injury index, leaf area, leaf dry mass, temperature, relative humidity, global solar radiation and accumulated rainfall were used in the regression analyses to select the best models for predicting O₃ concentrations. Leaf injury characteristically caused by O₃ was verified in all areas and periods of plant exposure. Higher values of leaf injury (24.5% and 27.7%) were registered in the 13th and 12th exposure periods during spring and in areas influenced by urban and industrial clutches. The VPD, temperature, global solar radiation and O₃ were correlated to leaf injury. Environmental variables [leaf area, leaf dry mass, global solar radiation and accumulated rainfall] and primarily the VPD were fundamental to improve the adjustments done in the bioindicator model (R² ≥ 0.73). Our research shows that biomonitoring employing the tobacco “Bel-W3” can be improved by measuring morphological leaf traits and meteorological parameters. Additionally, O₃ fumigation experiment should be performed with biomonitoring as conducted in this study, which are useful in understanding the role of other environmental factors.

In this study, we investigated the physiological and photochemical influences of nanoTiO2 exposure on tomato plants (Lycopersicum esculentum Mill.). Tomato plants were exposed to 100 mg L−1 of nanoTiO2 for 90 days in a hydroponic system. Light irradiances of 135 and 550 μmolphoton m−2 s−1 were applied as environmental stressors that could affect uptake of nanoTiO2. To quantify nanoTiO2 accumulation in plant bodies and roots, we used transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and X-ray powder diffraction. Phenotypic and physiological influences such as color change, growth rate, fruit productivity, pigment concentration, and enzyme activity (SOD, CAT, APX) were monitored. We observed numerous effects caused by high irradiance and nanoTiO2 exposure, such as rapid chlorophyll decrease, increased anthocyanin and carotenoid concentrations, high enzymatic activity, and an approximately eight-fold increase in fruit production. Moreover, light absorption in the nanoTiO2-treated tomato plants, as measured by a ultraviolet–visible light spectrometer, increased by a factor of approximately 19, likely due to natural pigments that worked as sensitizers, and this resulted in an ∼120% increase in photochemical activities on A, ФPSII, ФCO2, gsw, and E.

Pollutants, which are usually transported from urban cities to remote glacier basins, and aerosol impurities affect the earth's temperature and climate by altering the radiative properties of the atmosphere. This work focused on the physicochemical properties of atmospheric pollutants across the urban and remote background sites in northwest China. Information on individual particles was obtained using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX). Particle size and age-dependent mixing structures of individual particles in clean and polluted air were investigated. Aerosols were classified into eight components: mineral dust, black carbon (soot)/fly ash, sulfates, nitrates, NaCl salt, ammonium, organic matter, and metals. Marked spatial and seasonal changes in individual particle components were observed in the study area. Aerosol particles were generally found to be in the mixing state. For example, salt-coated particles in summer accounted for 31.2–44.8% of the total particles in urban sites and 37.5–74.5% of the total particles in background sites, while in winter, almost all urban sites comprised >50%, which implies a significant effect on the radiative forcing in the study area. We found that in PM₂.₅ section, the internally mixed black carbon/organic matter particles clearly increased with diameter. Moreover, urban cities were characterized by atmospheric particles sourced from anthropogenic activities, whereas background locations exhibited much lower aerosol concentrations and increased particle density, originating from natural crustal sources (e.g., mineral dust and NaCl salt), which, together with air mass trajectory analysis, indicates a potential spatial transport process and routes of atmospheric transport from urban cities to background locations. Thus, this work is of importance in evaluating atmospheric conditions in northwest China and northeast Tibetan Plateau regions, to discover the transport processes and facilitate improvements in climatic patterns concerning atmospheric impurities.

A conversion of the global terrestrial carbon sink to a source is critically dependent on the microbially mediated decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM). We have developed a detailed, process-based, mechanistic model for simulating SOM decomposition and its associated processes, based on Microbial Kinetics and Thermodynamics, called the MKT model. We formulated the sequential oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) and chemical reactions undergoing at the soil-water zone using dual Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Soil environmental variables, as required in the MKT model, are simulated using one of the most widely used watershed-scale models - the soil water assessment tool (SWAT). The MKT model was calibrated and validated using field-scale data of soil temperature, soil moisture, and N₂O emissions from three locations in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. The model evaluation statistics show good performance of the MKT model for daily soil N₂O simulations. The results show that the proposed MKT model can perform better than the more widely used process-based and SWAT-based models for soil N₂O simulations. This is because the multiple processes of microbial activities and environmental constraints, which govern the availability of substrates to enzymes were explicitly represented. Most importantly, the MKT model represents a step forward from conceptual carbon pools at varying rates.

The efficient removal of mercury from aqueous media remains a severe challenge in ensuring environmental safety, especially for low-concentration mercury, which requires adsorbents with high mercury affinity. In this work, we reported a nanocomposite of β-cyclodextrin and three-dimensional graphene (3D CD@RGO) to enhance the adsorption affinity and capacity for mercury with low concentrations. Characterization of the nanocomposite revealed that cyclodextrin was well dispersed on the 3D graphene support structure to provide highly exposed hydroxyl groups. Adsorption experiments showed that CD@RGO exhibited different adsorption behaviors for mercury within different concentration ranges of 0.2–4.0 mg/L and 4.0–10.0 mg/L, and the adsorption affinity for the former range (KL = 10.05 L/mg) was 1.5 times higher than that for the latter range (KL = 6.69 L/mg). Moreover, CD@RGO had a high adsorption efficiency of 96.6% with a superb adsorption affinity (172.09 L/g) at Ce = 0.01 mg/L, which is 6.70 and 41.25 times higher than that of RGO and RCD (physical mixture of RGO and cyclodextrin), respectively, indicating a synergistic effect of CD@RGO for mercury adsorption. This enhancement can be attributed to the transformation of the adsorption mechanism from the outer-sphere force of electrostatic interaction in RGO to the inner-sphere surface complexation in CD@RGO.

Using a realistic and environmental relevant approach, the present study aimed at understanding the biochemical and physiological basis of glyphosate (GLY)-induced stress in non-target plant species, using tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) as a model. For this purpose, plants were grown for 28 days under different concentrations of a commercial formulation of GLY (Roundup® UltraMax) - 0, 10, 20 and 30 mg kg⁻¹ soil. The exposure of plants to increasing concentrations of GLY caused a severe inhibition of growth (root and shoot elongation and fresh weight), especially in the highest treatments. In what regards the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), both hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and superoxide anion (O₂.⁻) remained unchanged in shoots, but significantly increased in roots. Moreover, a concentration-dependent decrease in lipid peroxidation (LP) was found in shoots, though in roots differences were only found for the highest concentration of GLY. The evaluation of the antioxidant system showed that GLY interfered with several antioxidant metabolites (proline, ascorbate and glutathione) and enzyme activities (superoxide dismutase – SOD; catalase – CAT; ascorbate peroxidase – APX), generally inducing a positive response of the defense mechanisms. Overall, data obtained in this study unequivocally demonstrated that soil contamination by GLY, applied as part of its commercial formulation Roundup® UltraMax, impairs the growth and physiological performance of tomato plants, and likely of other non-target plant species, after 28 days of exposure by clearly affecting the normal redox homeostasis.