Increasing offshore oil and gas exploration and development in harsh/Arctic environments require more effective offshore produced water management, as these environments are much more sensitive to changes in water quality than more temperate climates. However, the number and scope of studies of offshore produced water management in harsh/Arctic environments are limited. This paper reviews the current state of offshore produced water management, impacts, and policies, as well as the vulnerability, implications and operational challenges in harsh/Arctic environments. The findings show that the primary contaminant(s) of concern are contained in both the dissolved oil and the dispersed oil. The application of emerging technologies that can tackle this issue is significantly limited by the challenges of offshore operations in harsh/Arctic environments. Therefore, there is a need to develop more efficient and suitable management systems since more stringent policies are being implemented due to the increased vulnerability of harsh/Arctic environments.

Marine litter is one of the problems marine ecosystems face at present, coastal habitats and food webs being the most vulnerable as they are closest to the sources of litter. A range of animals (bivalves, free swimming crustaceans and benthic, deposit-feeding animals), of a coastal community of the northern Baltic Sea were exposed to relatively low concentrations of 10μm microbeads. The experiment was carried out as a small scale mesocosm study to mimic natural habitat. The beads were ingested by all animals in all experimental concentrations (5, 50 and 250beadsmL−1). Bivalves (Mytilus trossulus, Macoma balthica) contained significantly higher amounts of beads compared with the other groups. Free-swimming crustaceans ingested more beads compared with the benthic animals that were feeding only on the sediment surface. Ingestion of the beads was concluded to be the result of particle concentration, feeding mode and the encounter rate in a patchy environment.

Several statistical methods are performed in this study to evaluate the effect of emission control measures on particulate matter (PM) concentrations during the 2014 Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit held in Beijing. The concentration of PM2.5 is reduced by 30%, 38% on a year-on-year and month-on-month basis during the APEC emission control period while PM10 reducing by 41% and 26% respectively. Considering from the impacts of the weather circulation types, PM2.5 and PM10 are both reduced by 34%.ANN model is considered to be appropriate with the ability of characterising non-linear phenomena. In this work an ANN model is built to predict the daily averaged PM concentrations. Comparing the observed PM concentrations and the predicted value which are forecasted by ANN model on condition that no emission control measures were carried out during the APEC, the reductions for PM2.5 and PM10 are 24%, 28% respectively. All these results suggest that strict emission control measures push down the pollution level effectively, and more observed data with long time could improve the accuracy of evaluation results. More stringent controls of regional emissions should be lasted for the continuous improvements of air quality in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

In the current study, biocompatible and biodegradable blends based on poly(vinyl alcohol) nanoparticles – PVAn mixed with either chitosan (Ch) or starch (St) – were prepared and investigated as nanoabsorbents for oil elimination from wastewater. The use of water/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as a mixed solvent is the key factor for preparing aggregated PVAn, which is further mixed with Ch or St. Nanoblends were applied as oil absorbents, and the results showed that PVAn/St possess high adsorption capacity than PVAn/Ch and PVAn. The maximum sorption capacities (qg/g) of the PVAn/Ch sorbents for hydraulic oil, kerosene, and toluene were 33.6, 73.96, and 93.1g/g, respectively. The absorbed oil could be rapidly recovered by simple mechanical squeezing and reused without any other modification. The blends showed excellent reusability and could be reused for at least 10 times with minimal losses. The current study demonstrates the application of these blends as an ideal alternative sorbent for oil spillage cleanup.

The measurements of dew formation efficiency and chemistry were performed in Poland in September 2009, as a part of a longer, two-year sampling campaign. Pairs of sites, representing centers of major Polish cities and rural conditions in three different regions, were compared. With the aim to get more detailed landuse-oriented characteristics of dew, two additional sites were set close to Wroclaw. Collection of dew at each site was made by means of flat, insulated, passive radiative condenser, 1 m2 in area. The analysis has included a number of physico-chemical variables, i.e.: dew water volume, pH, conductivity (σ), concentration of some major anions: F−, Cl−, NO2−, NO3−, SO42−, PO43− and cations: Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, NH4+. The dew formation efficiency at the rural stations is about two times higher than in the nearby city centres and such regularity is complex in its origin. The results show generally low contamination of dew (16.8–132.6 μS cm−1) in comparison to literature examples, but definitely more acidic (pH ∼5.0). The urban dew is characterized about two times higher contamination than nearby rural and independently of the place of collection the dominant ions are NO3−, SO42− and Ca2+, all anthropogenic in origin. The sources of dew pollution have mostly regional character or alternatively urban emissions effectively contaminate dew even several tens of kilometers away. The urban dew pH is higher than rural, but dew is potentially acidic and corrosive at the level of urban canopy.

International audience | Major and trace elements in soils originate from natural processes and different anthropogenic activities which are difficult to discriminate. On a 17-ha impacted site in northern France, two industrial sources of soil contamination were xidentified: a former iron foundry and a current secondary lead smelter. To discriminate and map natural and anthropogenic sources of major and trace elements on this site, the rarely applied MULTISPATI-principal component analysis (PCA) method was used. Using a 20-m x 20-m grid, 247 topsoil horizons were sampled and analysed with a field-portable X-ray fluorescence analyser for screening soil contamination. The study site was heavily contaminated with Pb and, to a lesser degree, with Sn. Summary statistics and enrichment factors allowed the differentiation of the main lithogenic or anthropogenic origin of the elements. The MULTISPATI-PCA method, which explained 73.9% of the variability with the three first factors, evidenced strong spatial structures. Those spatial structures were attributed to different natural and artificial processes in the study area. The first axis can be interpreted as a lithogenic effect. Axes 2 and 3 reflect the two different contamination sources. Pb, Sn and S originated from the secondary lead smelter while Fe and Ca were mainly derived from the old iron foundry activity and the old railway built with foundry sand. This study demonstrated that the MULTISPATI-PCA method can be successfully used to investigate multicontaminated sites to discriminate the various sources of contamination.

Plastiques et dérivés : quels impacts écotoxicologiques sur les écosystèmes terrestres ? . Colloque ARET 2016 : Plastiques : quels enjeux pour demain ? Pollution physico-chimique & Impacts environnementaux et sanitaires. Ecoparc Rovaltain

International audience

International audience | Climate change and increasing demography press local authorities to look after affordable water resources and replacement of drinking water for city necessities like street and pavement cleaning by more available raw water. Though, the substitution of drinking by non-drinking resources demands the evaluation of sanitary hazards. This article aims therefore to evaluate the contribution of cleaning water to the overall exposure of city dwellers in case of wet pavement cleaning using crossed physical, chemical and biological approaches. The result of tracer experiments with fluorescein show that liquid water content of the cleaning aerosol produced is about 0.24 g m(-3), rending possible a fast estimation of exposure levels. In situ analysis of the aerosol particles indicates a significant increase in particle number concentration and particle diameter, though without change in particle composition. The conventional bacterial analysis using total coliforms as tracer suggests that an important part of the contamination is issued from the pavement. The qPCR results show a more than 20-fold increase of background genome concentration for Escherichia coli and 10-fold increase for Enterococcus but a negligible contribution of the cleaning water. The fluorescence analysis of the cleaning aerosol confirms the above findings identifying pavement surface as the major contributor to aerosol organic load. The physical, chemical and microbiological approaches used make it possible to describe accurately the cleaning bioaerosol and to identify the existence of significantly higher levels of all parameters studied during the wet pavement cleaning. Though, the low level of contamination and the very short time of passage of pedestrian in the zone do not suggest a significant risk for the city dwellers. As the cleaning workers remain much longer in the impacted area, more attention should be paid to their chronic exposure.

Genitors of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas were submitted during gametogenesis to a short pulse exposure to the herbicide diuron at a realistic environmental concentration. Histological analysis showed no effect of diuron on gametogenesis course, sex ratio and reproductive effort. A non-significant increase in testosterone and progesterone levels was observed in genitors exposed to the herbicide. At cell level, diuron exposure was shown to modulate the phagocytic activity of circulating hemocytes. The results of a transcriptional analysis showed that diuron affected the expression of genes belonging to functions known to play a major role during oyster gametogenesis such as gene transcription regulation, DNA replication and repair, DNA methylation and cytokinesis. Taking into account the results we previously obtained on the same genitors, this study showed a negative effect of diuron on oyster reproduction by inducing both structural and functional modifications of the DNA.