The aim of this novel research was to determine the toxic burden of increased elements in water resources on the inhabitant wild animals (squirrels, turtles, bats), using particle induced x-ray emission (PIXE) and histopathological approaches. PIXE analysis of skin, muscle, lung, liver and kidney revealed significant increase in Al, Cl, Fe, Mg, Mn, Si and V. Moreover, data clearly reflect a significant (P < 0.001) deposition of toxic elements (Al, Cl, Fe and K) in the lung producing interstitial/proliferative pneumonitis, intra-alveolar hemorrhages, and thickening of alveolar capillary walls. The results obtained from the liver samples emphasized that majority of the animals were intoxicated with Cl, Mg, S, Si and V, which have produced profound deterioration and swelling of the hepatocytes. Likewise, histopathology of the kidney sections spotlighted severe nephritis and degenerative changes, which could be associated with the elevated amount of Al, Cl and Mg. This data undoubtedly provide relevant information on the heavy burden of toxic elements and their pathological outcomes in wild animals and highlight their potential risks for human exposure. Thus, the information provided is critical for developing effective strategies in dealing with health hazards associated with elemental exposures.

Poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs) are anthropogenic pollutants ubiquitously found in the environment. Volatile PFASs are likely transported atmospherically over long ranges, but identification and quantification of emission sources is a challenging task. In this work, special meteorological conditions were utilized to quantify atmospheric emissions of Zurich City, Switzerland with a dual approach of modeling and field measurements. During high pressure systems in summer, a stable nocturnal boundary layer is formed in which pollutants are enriched. For volatile PFASs, a diel pattern of high concentrations in the night and low concentrations during the day was observed in Zurich, which is likely due to the atmospheric boundary layer dynamics. These results enable to model the emission source strength of Zurich City with a multimedia mass balance model in an accompanying paper. Cluster analyses suggested that perfluorocarboxylates (PFCAs) are a result of degradation of volatile precursors and direct emissions.

In this study on-road gaseous emissions of vehicles are investigated using remote sensing measurements collected over three different periods. The results show that a high percentage of gaseous pollutants were emitted from a small percentage of vehicles. Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) vehicles generally have higher gaseous emissions compared to other vehicles, particularly among higher-emitting vehicles. Vehicles with high vehicle specific power (VSP) tend to have lower CO and HC emissions while petrol and LPG vehicles tend to have higher NO emissions when engine load is high. It can be observed that gaseous emission factors of petrol and LPG vehicles increase greatly within 2 years of being introduced to the vehicle fleet, suggesting that engine and catalyst performance deteriorate rapidly. It can be observed that LPG vehicles have higher levels of gaseous emissions than petrol vehicles, suggesting that proper maintenance of LPG vehicles is essential in reducing gaseous emissions from vehicles.

Natural mosses have been employed as reactive and accumulative indicators of atmospheric pollutants. Using the denitrifier method, the concentration, δ¹⁵N and δ¹⁸O of moss nitrate (NO₃ ⁻) were measured to elucidate the sources of NO₃ ⁻ trapped in natural mosses. Oven drying at 55–70 °C, not lyophilization, was recommended to dry mosses for NO₃ ⁻ analyses. An investigation from urban to mountain sites in western Tokyo suggested that moss [NO₃ ⁻] can respond to NO₃ ⁻ availability in different habitats. NO₃ ⁻ in terricolous mosses showed isotopic ratios as close to those of soil NO₃ ⁻, reflecting the utilization of soil NO₃ ⁻. Isotopic signatures of NO₃ ⁻ in corticolous and epilithic mosses elucidated atmospheric NO₃ ⁻ sources and strength from the urban (vehicle NOₓ emission) to mountain area (wet-deposition NO₃ ⁻). However, mechanisms and isotopic effects of moss NO₃ ⁻ utilization must be further verified to enable the application of moss NO₃ ⁻ isotopes for source identification.

Surface soils were collected in Balang Mountain to explore the environmental process of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) during air transport. The average concentrations of ∑₂₅PCBs and ∑₁₃PBDEs in soils were 163 pg/g and 26 pg/g, respectively. The significant correlations between the concentrations of pollutants and total organic carbon (TOC) indicated the importance of TOC in accumulation potential of POPs. The slopes from fitted curves of PCBs were highly related with logKₒₐ, demonstrating that TOC dominates the soil-air exchange of PCBs. The TOC-normalized concentrations of contaminants in samples from below-treeline were higher than those from alpine meadow, probably due to the forest filter effect. The increasing trends of the concentrations with altitude from the alpine meadow samples, could be attributed to the mountain cold-trapping effect. And the weak cold-trapping effect of POPs might be due to the less precipitation in 2008 when comparing with those in 2006.

This paper addresses the effects of gaseous nitric acid (HNO₃) and ozone (O₃), two important air pollutants, on six lichen species with different morphological, ecological, and biological characteristics. The treatment chambers were set up in a factorial design consisting of control chambers, chambers fumigated with HNO₃, with O₃, and with HNO₃ and O₃, together. Each species showed a different sensitivity to the fumigations, reflecting the physiological variation among species. Our results clearly indicate that HNO₃ is a strong phytotoxin to many lichens, and that O₃ alone has little effect on the measured parameters. The combined fumigation effects of HNO₃ and O₃ were not significantly different from HNO₃ alone.

Lead contamination of urban residential soils is a public health concern. Consequently, there is a need to delineate hotspots in the landscape to identify risk and facilitate remediation. Land use is a good predictor of some environmental pollutants. However, in the case of soil lead, research has shown that land use is not a useful proxy. We hypothesize that soil lead is related to both individual landscape features at the parcel scale and the landscape context in which parcels are embedded. We sampled soil lead on 61 residential parcels in Baltimore, Maryland using field-portable x-ray fluorescence. Thirty percent of parcels had average lead concentrations that exceeded the USEPA limit of 400 ppm and 53% had at least one reading that exceeded 400 ppm. Results indicate that soil lead is strongly associated with housing age, distance to roadways, and on a parcel scale, distance to built structures.

Air quality improvement by a forested, peri-urban national park was quantified by combining the Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) and the Weather Research and Forecasting coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) models. We estimated the ecosystem-level annual pollution removal function of the park’s trees, shrub and grasses using pollution concentration data for carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O₃), and particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter (PM₁₀), modeled meteorological and pollution variables, and measured forest structure data. Ecosystem-level O₃ and CO removal and formation were also analyzed for a representative month. Total annual air quality improvement of the park’s vegetation was approximately 0.02% for CO, 1% for O₃, and 2% for PM₁₀, of the annual concentrations for these three pollutants. Results can be used to understand the air quality regulation ecosystem services of peri-urban forests and regional dynamics of air pollution emissions from major urban areas.

Food production by urban dwellers is of growing importance in developing and developed countries. Urban horticulture is associated with health risks as crops in urban settings are generally exposed to higher levels of pollutants than those in rural areas. We determined the concentration of trace metals in the biomass of different horticultural crops grown in the inner city of Berlin, Germany, and analysed how the local setting shaped the concentration patterns. We revealed significant differences in trace metal concentrations depending on local traffic, crop species, planting style and building structures, but not on vegetable type. Higher overall traffic burden increased trace metal content in the biomass. The presence of buildings and large masses of vegetation as barriers between crops and roads reduced trace metal content in the biomass. Based on this we discuss consequences for urban horticulture, risk assessment, and planting and monitoring guidelines for cultivation and consumption of crops.

This work summarized all results obtained during almost two-years of a monitoring programme carried out in five municipal sewage treatment plants (STPs) located in the north, centre and south-east of Spain. The study evaluated the occurrence and persistence of a group of 100 organic compounds belonging to several chemical groups (pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides and metabolites). The average removal efficiencies of the STPs studied varied from 20% (erythromycin) to 99% (acetaminophen). In analysed samples, we identified a large number of compounds at mean range concentrations between 7–59,495 ng/L and 5–32,720 ng/L for influent and effluent samples, respectively. This study also identified 20 of the mostly detected and persistent compounds in wastewater effluent, of which hydrochlorothiazide, atenolol, gemfibrozil, galaxolide and three metabolites (fenofibric acid, 4-AAA and 4-FAA), presented the highest average contribution percentages, in relation to the total load of contaminants for the different STPs effluent studied.