This study reports the occurrence of some endocrine disrupting chemicals in red mullet samples and sediments collected in two representative sites of the northern Sicilian coast (Italy). For this purpose, an improved method, using solid extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography analyses for the simultaneous determination of bisphenol A (BPA), 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) and 4-t-octylphenol (4-t-OP) in fish tissues and sediments, has been developed and validated. Method performance was demonstrated over the concentration range 0.1–200ng/mL, with detection limits from 0.06 to 0.1ng/mL. Recoveries ranged from 83.4% to 102.6%, with relative standard deviations of 7.7–14.0% for the entire procedure.Results showed that BPA, 4-t-OP and 4-NP were detected in all fish samples and sediments from two sampling sites, indicating that these chemicals have contaminated Mediterranean aquatic ecosystem and have accumulated in fish. The study provided more comprehensive fundamental data for risk assessment and contamination control of phenolic EDCs in aquatic environment.

Under the background of growing greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting global warming, researches about the spatial-temporal variation analysis of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the regional and global scale has become one of the most important topics in the scientific community. Simulating and analyzing the spatial-temporal variation of the carbon dioxide concentration on a global scale under limited observation data has become one of the key problems to be solved in the research field of spatial analysis technology. A new research approach based on high accuracy surface modeling data fusion (HASM-DF) method was proposed in this paper, in which the output of the CO2 concentration of the GEOS-Chem model were taken as driving field, and the observation values of CO2 concentration at ground observation station were taken as accuracy control conditions. The new approach's objective is to fulfill the fusion of the two kinds of CO2 data, and obtain the distribution of CO2 on a global scale with a higher accuracy than the results of GEOS-Chem. Root mean square error (RMSE) was chosen as the basic accuracy index, and the experimental analysis shows that the RMSE of the result of the proposed approach is 1.886 ppm, which is significantly lower than that of the GEOS-Chem's 2.239 ppm. Furthermore, compared with the results created by the interpolation methods used the observation values at stations; the fusion results keep a good spatial heterogeneity similar to the results of GEOS-Chem. This research analyzed the spatial distribution and time series variation of the near-surface CO2 based on the fusion result on a global scale. And it can found that areas such as East Asia, Western North American, Central South America and Central Africa and other region show a relatively high value of the near-surface CO2 concentration. And we also found that the near-surface CO2 concentration changes with season, especially in North America and Eurasia, the near-surface CO2 in summer was significantly lower than winter in these areas.

Intense blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Ostreopsis have been a recurrent phenomenon along several Mediterranean coasts. Blooms have been associated with noxious effects on human health and mortality of marine organisms, due to the production of palytoxin-like compounds. We analyzed the toxin concentrations throughout an O. cf. ovata bloom to highlight their relationships with environmental parameters in the Conero Riviera, northern Adriatic Sea. High temperature and balanced nutrient conditions were the optimal environmental conditions to start and sustain blooms as well as to maximize toxin production. Ostreopsis showed a gradual decrease of toxin content throughout the bloom ascribed to the occurring of the same non-optimal conditions that led to the bloom decline. Moreover, our results suggest that toxin fraction released during bloom could be higher than that released in batch culture. Results from this study pointed out that the first bloom phase is potentially the most dangerous to human health.

To constrain organic matter compositions and origins, elemental (TOC, TN, C/N) and stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen isotope (δ15N) compositions are measured for surface sediments collected from muddy deposit along the Zhejiang coast, East China Sea. The results showed that the TOC, TN, C/N, δ13C, and δ15N were 0.19–0.67%, 0.03–0.09%, 6.76–9.22, −23.43 to −20.26‰, and 3.93–5.27‰, respectively. The δ13C values showed that the mixing inputs of terrigenous and marine organic matter generally dominated sedimentary organic matter in the west part, and the sedimentary organic matters were mainly influenced by the marine organic matter in the east part of the study area. A stable carbon isotope two end member mixing model estimates ~38% terrestrial -derived and ~62% marine-derived inputs to sedimentary organic matter. Microbial mineralization strongly controls δ15N values, and therefore cannot be used to identify the provenance of organic matter for the Zhenjiang coast.

Both the invasion of non-indigenous marine species (NIMS) and the generation and accumulation of anthropogenic marine debris (AMD) are pervasive problems in coastal urban ecosystems. The biosecurity risks associated with AMD rafting NIMS have been described, but the role of aquaculture derived AMD has not yet been investigated as a biosecurity vector and pathway. This preliminary study targeted 27 beaches along the Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand, collecting debris from belt transects. Plastic (specifically plastic rope) was the dominant AMD present on beaches. The most common biofouling taxa were hydroids, bryozoans, algae and polychaetes, with one NIMS pest species, Sabella spallanzanii, detected fouling plastic rope. Our findings demonstrate that aquaculture is an AMD (plastic rope) generating activity that creates biosecurity risk by enhancing the spread of NIMS. The rafting of S. spallanzanii on AMD generated at aquaculture facilities is currently an unmanaged pathway within New Zealand that needs attention.

Fifty two surface sediments were collected from the northern part of the Gulf of Mannar biosphere reserve to assess the geospatial risk of sediments. We found that distribution of organic matter and CaCO3 distributions were locally controlled by the mangrove litters and fragmented coral debris. In addition, Fe and Mn concentrations in the marine sediments were probably supplied through the riverine input and natural processes. The Geo-accumulation of elements fall under the uncontaminated category except Pb. Lead show a wide range of contamination from uncontaminated-moderately contaminated to extremely contaminated category. The sediment toxicity level of the elements revealed that the majority of the sediments fall under moderately to highly polluted sediments (23.07–28.84%). The grades of potential ecological risk suggest that predominant sediments fall under low to moderate risk category (55.7–32.7%). The accumulation level of trace elements clearly suggests that the coral reef ecosystem is under low to moderate risk.

Some of the main threats to coral reefs come from human actions on marine environment, such as tourism, overfishing and pollution from urban development. While several studies have demonstrated an association between bacteria and corals, demonstrating how these communities react to different anthropogenic stressors, yeast communities associated with corals have received far less attention from researchers. The aim of this work was therefore to describe cultivable yeasts associated with three coral species and to evaluate the influence of sewage discharge on yeasts community. We obtained 130 isolates, mostly belonging to phylum Ascomycota and many of them had previously been isolated from human samples or are considered pathogens. The mycobiota was more similar among corals collected from the same reef, indicating that the composition of reef yeast community is more influenced by environmental conditions than host species. We suggest further studies to elucidate which factors are most influential on the composition of the coral-associated yeast community.

Atmospheric PM1 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 1 μm) samples have been collected during foggy (n = 17) and non-foggy nights (n = 19) in wintertime at Kanpur in central Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) to assess light absorption characteristics and direct radiative forcing of water-extractable brown carbon (BrC). We have observed a significant enhancement (two-tailed t-test: t = 2.2; at significance level: p < 0.05) in the absorption coefficient of water-extractable BrC at 365 nm (babs-BrC-365) from non-foggy (Avg.: 53.5 Mm⁻¹) to foggy episodes (69.3 Mm⁻¹). Enhancement in mass absorption efficiency (MAE) of BrC (1.8 m²/g C) during foggy episodes is consistent with that of babs-BrC-365. Absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) remained similar (2.8) during foggy and non-foggy episodes. Significantly lower value of AAE (2.8) at Kanpur compared to other places in IGP (∼5) highlights more light absorbing potential of atmospheric BrC over central IGP. Furthermore, MAE of EC at 660 nm during foggy period (8.5 m²/g) is relatively high as compared to that during the non-foggy episode (7.0 m²/g). The MAE of BrC and EC exhibited enhancement by ∼15% and 20%, respectively during foggy events. These observations are also reflected by an increase (t = 11.1; p < 0.05) in direct radiative forcing of water-extractable BrC (relative to EC) in the atmosphere: from 23.7 ± 10.8% during non-foggy to 54.3 ± 16.5% during foggy episodes. Differences in chemical composition, loading, absorption properties and direct radiative forcing (DRF) of carbonaceous aerosols during non-foggy and foggy episodes indicate predominant influence of fog-processing.

This paper presents the characterization and modeling of exhaust emissions released from the passenger cars on urban roads under heterogeneous traffic conditions. Onboard exhaust emissions measurement were made at selected corridors in a populous urban area of India. Exhaust emissions were characterized for different driving modes classified according to vehicle specific power (VSP). Results indicated that emissions at VSP modes under cruising speeds were 10–12 times less than idling (which is the mode used for emission standard certification), braking and accelerating conditions. Also it has been found that more than 20% of time vehicles were in idling conditions at most of the roads.Real-time exhaust emission prediction models for heterogeneous traffic conditions were developed using artificial neural network (ANN) technique. The vehicle characteristics such as revolutions per minute (RPM), speed, acceleration and VSP were used as input to the model. The onboard measurements of CO, HC and NOx concentrations were used to train the ANN based exhaust emission prediction models. Result showed good agreement with onboard measured emissions data (index of agreement = 0.9) of all driving modes. Further, ANN model's emissions were compared with emissions estimated from the COPERT model and emission factors recommended by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI). It was found that the ANN model emissions were edge over the ARAI and COPERT model emissions and useful for urban air quality management and traffic planning.