This study investigates PCBs attenuation and the abundance of active polychlorinated-degrading Dehalococcoides spp. biphenyl dioxygenase (bphC), chemotaxis (CheA), and flagellum (flic) genes in floody and dry soil conditions polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls. The results revealed that total PCBs, high chlorinated PCBs (>4 cl), and less chlorinated PCBs (<4 cl) decreased with the passage of time in floody and dry soil conditions. The reduction of total PCBs (13.87 %) and less chlorinated PCBs (15.39 %) was more in dry soil than floody soil, while high chlorinated PCBs showed more reduction in floody soil (8.06 %) than dry soil. Dehaloccoides spp., bphC, CheA, and flic genes indicated temporal dynamics in abundance in floody and dry soil conditions. The highest abundance was 1.6 × 10⁹, 3.7 × 10⁴, and 3.6 × 10² copies in floody and 1.6 × 10⁴ copies in dry soil for Dehalococcoides spp., bphC, CheA, and flic, respectively. Multivariate statistics (RDA) revealed that Dehaloccoides spp. were positively influenced by the higher chlorinated PCBs and soil physical properties, CheA gene with floody soil, flic gene with total PCBs and less chlorinated PCBs, and bphC gene was affected with moisture contents and less chlorinated PCBs. This study provides new insight in the attenuation of PCBs and the abundance of active Dehalococcoides spp. and genes in PCBs polluted soil under floody and dry soil conditions.

Ten sediments were collected from the northern part of Taihu Lake, China. They were incubated for 24 h and 80 days to analyze the adsorption characteristics. After adsorption, the residual sediments were extracted with 0.01 M CaCl₂ and 0.5 M NaHCO₃ separately. Maximum buffer capacities of the Langmuir and Freundlich functions of 80-day incubation were highly correlated with 24 h (R ² = 0.97). A longer time would enhance the resistance of the sediments to P changes in the water. Adsorption and NaHCO₃-P were highly linearly related with R ² > 0.969, but the relationships between 24 h and 80 days were different. The relationships between adsorption and CaCl₂-P could be better explained (97 %) by segmented line models, but the fitting results were affected by incubation time. An interesting finding is that when we plotted the NaHCO₃-P and CaCl₂-P together by a segmented line model, the data showed a uniform trend unrelated to the incubation time. NaHCO₃-P is seldom used to evaluate P status in sediments in comparison with soils. Yet, our results suggested NaHCO₃-P is a good bridge to link the sediments P retention ability and P release risk. Due to its simplicity, NaHCO₃-P has promising potential in predicting the transfer of P from sediments.

Pollutants in marine coastal areas are mainly a consequence of anthropogenic inputs, and microorganisms often play a major role in determining the extent of this pollution. Thus, practical and eco-friendly techniques are urgently required in order to control or minimise the pathogenic bacterial problem. The bacterial accumulation of Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lamarck 1919) in the presence or absence of another filter feeder, the demosponge Hymeniacidon perlevis (Montagu 1818) on sewage flowing into the Northern Ionian Sea has been estimated in a laboratory study. On account of the interesting results obtained, we also evaluated the bioremediation capability of the sponges when reared in co-culture with mussels. Specimens of M. galloprovincialis and H. perlevis were collected from the Mar Grande and from the Second Inlet of the Mar Piccolo of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Italy), respectively. In the laboratory, we detected the bacterial abundances in the sewage, in sponge homogenates (both sponges alone and sponges that have been added to sewage with mussels) and in mussel homogenates (both mussels alone and mussels that have been added to sewage with sponges). In the field, we estimated the bacterial concentration in both the seawater within the mussels culture and the seawater collected where mussels were reared in co-culture with sponges. The bacteriological analyses were performed analysing the following parameters: the density of culturable heterotrophic bacteria by spread plate on marine agar, total culturable bacteria at 37 °C on plate count agar and vibrios on thiosulphate–citrate–bile–sucrose–salt (TCBS) agar. Total coliforms, Escherichia coli and intestinal streptococci concentrations were detected by the MPN method. The study demonstrates a higher efficiency of the sponges in removing all the considered bacterial groups compared to the mussels. Due to the conspicuous bacterial accumulation by the sponge, we can conclude that the co-occurrence of the filter-feeder H. perlevis with M. galloprovincialis is a powerful tool in reducing the bacterial load in shellfish culture areas thus playing a role in mitigating the health hazard related to the consumption of edible mussels.

The in situ chemical oxidation technology (ISCO) and phytoremediation for PAHs have been studied respectively, but few focus on the feasibility of combining persulfate with ryegrass. This literature revealed the effect of persulfate oxidation on the growth of ryegrass and the removal ratios of pyrene in the couple system of persulfate oxidation and phytoremediation. The results demonstrated that half of pyrene in test soil was oxidized by persulfate in 7 days and then the residual pyrene concentration was decreased to a lower level by ryegrass in the following 2 months in oxidation treatment and drip washing and plants (OWP) and oxidation treatment and drip washing and plants and fertilization (OWFP) treatment. Ryegrass could grow well after persulfate oxidation with the oxidized soil washed by water. Ryegrass in OWP and OWFP treatments had higher ratios of overground and underground biomass. However, the seeds of ryegrass cannot germinate when drip washing was omitted. Pyrene together with residual persulfate changed soil enzyme activities. Drip washing and the growth of ryegrass made soil enzyme activities tend to returned to normal levels. Persulfate oxidation and phytoremediation were compatible to make contributions to the dissipation of pyrene. Persulfate oxidation activated by heat had higher removal efficiency of PAHs and phytoremediation could further decrease the pyrene concentration in spiked soil.

Cement industries located nearby limestone outcrops in Brazil have contributed to the coating of cement dust over native plant species. However, little is known about the extent of the response of tropical woody plants to such environmental pollutant particularly during the first stages of plant development and establishment. This work focused on the investigation of possible alterations in leaf structural and ultrastructural traits of 5-month-old Guazuma ulmifolia Lam. (Malvaceae), 6-month-old Myracrodruon urundeuva Allemão (Anacardiaceae), and 9-month-old Trichilia hirta L. (Meliaceae) challenged superficially with cement dust during new leaf development. Leaf surface of plants, the soil or both (leaf plus soil), were treated (or not) for 60 days, under controlled conditions, with cement dust at 2.5 or 5.0 mg cm⁻². After exposure, no significant structural changes were observed in plant leaves. Also, no plant death was recorded by the end of the experiment. There was also some evidence of localized leaf necrosis in G. ulmifolia and T. hirta, leaf curling in M. urundeuva and T. hirta, and bulges formation on epidermal surface of T. hirta, after cement dust contact with plant shoots. All species studied exhibited stomata obliteration while T. hirta, in particular, presented early leaf abscission, changes in cellular relief, and organization and content of midrib cells. No significant ultrastructural alterations were detected under the experimental conditions studied. Indeed, mesophyll cells presented plastids with intact membrane systems. The high plant survival rates, together with mild morphoanatomic traits alterations in leaves, indicate that G. ulmifolia is more resistant to cement dust pollutant, followed by M. urundeuva and T. hirta. Thus, the three plant species are promising for being used to revegetate areas impacted by cement industries activities.

In the light of urban environmental transition (UET) theory, this study explores the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, economic growth, urbanization, and trade openness using updated Chinese data over the extended period (1971–2013). After confirming that all the underlying series are stationary and adjusted with single structural break point, the results of autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test approach to cointegration confirm the cointegration between the variables. The long- and short-run dynamics reveal that urbanization reduces the CO₂ emissions both in short and long runs, but statistically insignificant. These findings contrast with previous literature and sound the validation of urban environmental transition theory (UET). However, economic growth and trade openness contribute environmental degradation both in long- and short-run paths. The causality analysis reports bidirectional causal link between trade openness and urbanization in the short run. However, in the long-run, economic growth Granger causes carbon dioxide emissions, urbanization, and trade openness. Similarly, trade openness Granger causes carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, and urbanization in the long run. The overall results imply that rural to urban immigration is still mostly driven by export-related manufacturing sectors. In addition, the higher GDP also contributes to urbanization as a feedback effect. In the end, stability of the model is also checked, model found stable, and findings are suitable for environmental policy control use.

This study aims to investigate the effects of chlorpyrifos’s sub-acute exposure on male rats. Two groups with six animals each were orally treated, respectively, with 3.1 mg/kg b w and 6.2 mg/kg b w of chlorpyrifos during 4 weeks. The genotoxic effect of chlopyrifos was investigated using the comet assay and the micronucleus test. Some hematological and liver’s histopathological changes were also evaluated. Results revealed that chlorpyrifos induced histopathological alterations in liver parenchyma. The lymphoid infiltration observed in liver sections and the increase in white blood cells parameter are signs of inflammation. A significant increase in the platelet’ count and in polychromatic erythrocytes/normochromatic erythrocytes (PCE/NCE) ratio was observed in chlorpyrifos-treated groups which could be due to the stimulatory effect of chlorpyrifos on cell formation in the bone marrow at lower doses. In addition, the increase of bone marrow micronucleus percentage and the comet tail length revealed a genotoxic potential of chlorpyrifos in vivo.

In this study, the toxicity, biotransformation and bioaccumulation of arsenite and arsenate in a soil microalga, Chlorella sp., were investigated using different phosphate levels. The results indicated that arsenate was highly toxic than arsenite to the alga, and the phosphate limitation in growth media greatly enhanced arsenate toxicity. The uptake of arsenate in algal cells was more than that of arsenite, and the predominant species in the growth media was arsenate after 8 days of exposure to arsenite or arsenate, indicating arsenite oxidation by this microalga. Arsenate reduction was also observed when the alga was incubated in a phosphate-limiting growth medium. Similar to the process of biotransformation, the alga accumulated more arsenic when it was exposed to arsenate and preferably more in a phosphate-limiting condition. Although phosphate significantly influences the biotransformation and bioaccumulation of arsenic, the oxidizing ability and higher accumulation capacity of this alga have great potential for its application in arsenic bioremediation.