The associations of air pollution exposure during pregnancy with fetal growth and anthropometric measurements at birth: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Fetal growth has been demonstrated to be an important predictor of perinatal and postnatal health. Although the effects of maternal exposure to air...     

Simultaneous adsorption and immobilization of As and Cd by birnessite-loaded biochar in water and soil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - A novel biochar was prepared by loading birnessite to improve its capability to simultaneously adsorb As(III), As(V), and Cd(II) in water and soil....     

Conservation optimism and reckoning with the future

Article impact statement: The optimism permeating biological conservation should be recalibrated considering the future that present times portend.     

Evaluation of photolysis and hydrolysis of pyraclostrobin in aqueous solutions and its degradation products in paddy water

This study evaluated the hydrolysis and photolysis kinetics of pyraclostrobin in an aqueous solution using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–photodiode array detection and identified the resulting metabolites of pyraclostrobin by hydrolysis and photolysis in paddy water using high-resolution mass spectrometry coupled with liquid chromatography. The effect of solution pH, metal ions and surfactants on the hydrolysis of pyraclostrobin was explored. The hydrolysis half-lives of pyraclostrobin were 23.1–115.5?days and were stable in buffer solution at pH 5.0. The degradation rate of pyraclostrobin in an aqueous solution under sunlight was slower than that under UV photolysis reaction. The half-lives of pyraclostrobin in a buffer solution at pH 5.0, 7.0, 9.0 and in paddy water were less than 12?h under the two light irradiation types. The metabolites of the two processes were identified and compared to further understand the mechanisms underlying hydrolysis and photolysis of pyraclostrobin in natural water. The extracted ions obtained from paddy water were automatically annotated by Compound Discoverer software with manual confirmation of their fragments. Two metabolites were detected and identified in the pyraclostrobin hydrolysis, whereas three metabolites were detected and identified in the photolysis in paddy water.     

Urban wild meat consumption and trade in central Amazonia

The switch from hunting wild meat for home consumption to supplying more lucrative city markets in Amazonia can adversely affect some game species. Despite this, information on the amounts of wild meat eaten in Amazonian cities is still limited. We estimated wild meat consumption rates in 5 cities in the State of Amazonas in Brazil through 1046 door-to-door household interviews conducted from 2004 to 2012. With these data, we modeled the relationship between wild meat use and a selection of socioeconomic indices. We then scaled up our model to determine the amounts of wild meat likely to be consumed annually in the 62 urban centers in central Amazonia. A total of 80.3% of all interviewees reported consuming wild meat during an average of 29.3 (CI 11.6) days per year. Most wild meat was reported as bought in local markets (80.1%) or hunted by a family member (14.9%). Twenty-one taxa were cited as consumed, mostly mammals (71.6%), followed by reptiles (23.2%) and then birds (5.2%). The declared frequency of wild meat consumption was positively correlated with the proportion of rural population as well as with the per capita gross domestic product of the municipality (administrative divisions) where the cities were seated. We estimated that as much as 10,691 t of wild meat might be consumed annually in the 62 urban centers within central Amazonia, the equivalent of 6.49 kg per person per year. In monetary terms, this amounts to US$21.72 per person per year or US$35.1 million overall, the latter figure is comparable to fish and timber production in the region. Given this magnitude of wild meat trade in central Amazonia, it is fundamental to integrate this activity into the formal economy and actively develop policies that allow the trade of more resilient taxa and restrict trade in species sensitive to hunting.     

Photosynthesis and related metabolic mechanism of promoted rice (Oryza sativa L.) growth by TiO2 nanoparticles

• The rice growth was promoted by nano-TiO₂ of 0.1–100 mg/L. • Nano-TiO₂ enhanced the energy storage in photosynthesis. • Nano-TiO₂ reduced energy consumption in carbohydrate metabolism and TCA cycle. Titanium dioxide nanoparticle (nano-TiO₂), as an excellent UV absorbent and photo-catalyst, has been widely applied in modern industry, thus inevitably discharged into environment. We proposed that nano-TiO₂ in soil can promote crop yield through photosynthetic and metabolic disturbance, therefore, we investigated the effects of nano-TiO₂ exposure on related physiologic-biochemical properties of rice (Oryza sativa L.). Results showed that rice biomass was increased >30% at every applied dosage (0.1–100 mg/L) of nano-TiO₂. The actual photosynthetic rate (Y(II)) significantly increased by 10.0% and 17.2% in the treatments of 10 and 100 mg/L respectively, indicating an increased energy production from photosynthesis. Besides, non-photochemical quenching (Y(NPQ)) significantly decreased by 19.8%–26.0% of the control in all treatments respectively, representing a decline in heat dissipation. Detailed metabolism fingerprinting further revealed that a fortified transformation of monosaccharides (D-fructose, D-galactose, and D-talose) to disaccharides (D-cellobiose, and D-lactose) was accompanied with a weakened citric acid cycle, confirming the decrease of energy consumption in metabolism. All these results elucidated that nano-TiO₂ promoted rice growth through the upregulation of energy storage in photosynthesis and the downregulation of energy consumption in metabolism. This study provides a mechanistic understanding of the stress-response hormesis of rice after exposure to nano-TiO₂, and provides worthy information on the potential application and risk of nanomaterials in agricultural production.