Protective effects of thymoquinone against acrylamide-induced liver,kidney and brain oxidative damage in rats

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Acrylamide (AA), an industrial monomer, may cause multi-organ toxicity through induction of oxidative stress and inflammation. The antioxidant...     

Evaluation of pollution by heavy metals of an abandoned Pb-Zn mine in northern Tunisia using sequential fractionation and geostatistical mapping

This study investigates the contents of lead, zinc, and cadmium in 109 near-surface soil samples collected around the abandoned mine of Fedj Lahdoum, northern Tunisia, to assess the risk of pollution they generate. The study involved some analytical procedures such as pH measurements, X-ray diffraction techniques, sequential fractionation, and geostatistical mapping using the ordinary Kriging techniques. The sequential fractionation revealed that the bioavailability of Pb, Zn, and Cd follows the orders F5?>?F3 » F4?>?F2 » F1, F5?>?F3 » F4 » F2?>?F1 and F5?>?F2 » F4?>?F1, respectively; their associations with organic matter and residual sulfides (F4) are relatively low. However, their high cumulated contents are dominantly associated with the residual (F5) and reducible (F3) fractions. The geostatistical mapping was endeavored to predict the spatial distribution of the studied heavy metals at unsampled sites and to produce a cumulated risk map of soil pollution. The latter is discussed with emphasis of the main factors responsible for the scattering of the pollution as much as the landscape conditions, the chemical composition of the mine tailings, the surface drainage of meteoric water and the wind. This study provides insight into the delineation of the spatial spreading of Pb, Zn, and Cd around the abandoned mine Fedj Lahdoum and their surrounding urban areas. It reveals that the mine infrastructure areas encompassing both extraction and processing and tailing deposition areas are the main sources of contamination. And the landscape conditions together with the surface drainage of meteoric water and the wind are the main factors responsible for the scattering of the pollution.

     

Molecular,functional, and cellular alterations of oocytes and cumulus cells induced by heat stress and shock in animals

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Global warming is considered as the main environmental stress affecting ecosystems as well as physiological and biochemical characteristics, and...     

Salinity modulates biochemical and histopathological changes caused by silver nanoparticles in juvenile Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of salinity on the acute and sub-chronic toxicity of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in Persian...     

Could curcumin ameliorate titanium dioxide nanoparticles effect on the heart? A histopathological,immunohistochemical, and genotoxic study

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The evaluation of the toxicological effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) is increasingly important due to their growing occupational...     

Biosynthesized silver nanoparticles regulate the iron status in the spleen of Plasmodium chabaudi–infected mice

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Malaria is a dangerous disease affecting millions around the globe. Biosynthesized nanoparticles are used against a variety of diseases including...     

Fresh water fishes as indicators of Kaveri River pollution

The survey of fish fauna in Kaveri River at polluted and unpolluted sites revealed a direct effect on the distribution of fishes in that 14 species were observed in unpolluted site and only 6 species in polluted site. Further, the haemotological parameters like RBC, WBC and haemoglobin content increased in fishes collected from polluted site whereas the organic constituents of muscle decreased in the above fishes when compared to the fishes of unpolluted site. The reason for the above changes is discussed.     

Factors driving the seasonal dynamics of Pseudo-nitzschia species and domoic acid at mussel farming in the SW Mediterranean Sea

ABSTRACT

The seasonal variations in Pseudo-nitzschia species and domoic acid (DA) concentration were investigated, at three shellfish farms in SW coastal Mediterranean. In parallel, the toxicity of mussels was tested. Two distinct groups of species were enumerated according to morphology and size (Pseudo-nizschia delicatissima and P. seriata groups). DA was detected over a nine-week period from July to October 2012 in the Lagoon, with a maximum concentration recorded in July (12.71?ng?DA?L^?1). DA was positively correlated with the presence of P. seriata-group and P. delicatissima-group and was mostly occurred during P limitation period in seawater. No DA was found in mussels that were collected during the period of DA absence in seawater. Our results suggest that temperature, salinity, inorganic and organic nutrients were significant for the seasonal dynamics of P. seriata and P. delicatissima groups, but that the P limitation was the most driving factor for DA production in these areas. The relative influence of environmental factors should be further studied to better understand the recent surfacing of massive blooms of toxigenic Pseudo-nitzschia in SW Mediterranean coast.     

Benefits of protected areas for nonbreeding waterbirds adjusting their distributions under climate warming

Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions and community composition. Many species have a so-called climatic debt, that is, shifts in range lag behind shifts in temperature isoclines. Inside protected areas (PAs), community changes in response to climate warming can be facilitated by greater colonization rates by warm-dwelling species, but also mitigated by lowering extirpation rates of cold-dwelling species. An evaluation of the relative importance of colonization-extirpation processes is important to inform conservation strategies that aim for both climate debt reduction and species conservation. We assessed the colonization-extirpation dynamics involved in community changes in response to climate inside and outside PAs. To do so, we used 25 years of occurrence data of nonbreeding waterbirds in the western Palearctic (97 species, 7071 sites, 39 countries, 1993–2017). We used a community temperature index (CTI) framework based on species thermal affinities to investigate species turnover induced by temperature increase. We determined whether thermal community adjustment was associated with colonization by warm-dwelling species or extirpation of cold-dwelling species by modeling change in standard deviation of the CTI (CTI_SD). Using linear mixed-effects models, we investigated whether communities in PAs had lower climatic debt and different patterns of community change than communities outside PAs. For CTI and CTI_SD combined, communities inside PAs had more species, higher colonization, lower extirpation, and lower climatic debt (16%) than communities outside PAs. Thus, our results suggest that PAs facilitate 2 independent processes that shape community dynamics and maintain biodiversity. The community adjustment was, however, not sufficiently fast to keep pace with the large temperature increases in the central and northeastern western Palearctic. Our results underline the potential of combining CTI and CTI_SD metrics to improve understanding of the colonization-extirpation patterns driven by climate warming.