生物样品中烷基酚类内分泌干扰物的前处理和分析方法

烷基酚类化合物具有与天然雌激素相似的结构,是一类典型的内分泌干扰物,被广泛应用于表面活性剂、纺织印染、橡胶塑料、油溶性酚醛树脂等领域,已经在环境介质中被广泛检测到.由于酚基类物质通常具有亲脂性和生物累积性,因此,生物样品中该类化合物的检测成为健康风险评价的关键.本文对近年来生物样品(生物组织、血液、尿液等)中烷基酚类物质的前处理技术与检测方法进行了综述,并对未来的发展趋势进行了展望.     

Primary sex ratios in zebra finches: no evidence for adaptive manipulation in wild and semi-domesticated populations.

When breeding diet is restricted, domesticated zebra finches,Taeniopygia guttata, produce male-biased primary and secondary sex ratios, but unexpectedly produce unbiased ratios when food is unrestricted. We investigated the primary sex ratios (at laying) of wild zebra finches in southeastern Australia in response to food supplementation and environmental factors predicted to enhance female breeding condition and to bias the primary sex ratio towards daughters. Molecular sexing of all nestlings in 54 complete broods where every egg hatched, failed to show any significant biases from random. Time of egg laying (month, season) and environmental conditions (rainfall, temperature) did not significantly predict variation in the primary sex ratio, but time of breeding did affect clutch size. Wild zebra finches at our colony did not bias their sex allocation as there were no differences in the primary sex ratio and no differences in the numbers and mass of sons and daughters at the end of parental care (day 35–40 post-hatch). Biases in primary sex ratio of our wild population are probably weak or non-existent possibly due to the unpredictable environment and/or multiple contrary selective forces acting on sex ratios. We also investigated the effects of photoperiod, biases in the adult sex ratio, and parental attractiveness on primary sex ratios of semi-domesticated, laboratory zebra finches. Molecular sexing of three-day old embryos from complete clutches, failed to reveal significant biases from random. In contrast to previous studies, sex of eggs did not correlate with laying order and egg mass declined with order, rather than increased. Domestication may be responsible for these differences.     

A review on environmental distributions and risk management of phenols pertaining to the endocrine disrupting chemicals in Taiwan

Some phenols, including pentachlorophenol, dichlorophenol, alkylphenols (nonylphenol & octylphenol) and bisphenol-A, have been identified as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). These phenolic EDCs are extensively used in a wide range of household products, thus posing potential health risks for humans exposed to them. From the viewpoints of ecotoxicology, human health and regulations, it is urgent to restrict the emissions and releases of these estrogenic chemicals from the industrial processes and commercial products. This review article first focused on the physicochemical properties of phenolic EDCs and their industrial/commercial uses. Furthermore, their environmental distributions and regulatory frameworks for integrated risk management of these chemicals in Taiwan were conducted as a case study. Emphasis was thus put on the cross-ministerial joint venture (i.e., environment, health, agriculture, labor, and industry authorities), and the government policy on the risk management of EDCs. Finally, some recommendations for pollution prevention and toxicity reduction of phenolic EDCs were also addressed and analyzed to progress towards a sustainable society in Taiwan.     

SARS-CoV-2 variants and environmental effects of lockdowns,masks and vaccination: a review

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is continuously evolving and four variants of concern have been identified so far, including Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants. Here we review the indirect effect of preventive measures such as the implementation of lockdowns, mandatory face masks, and vaccination programs, to control the spread of the different variants of this infectious virus on the environment. We found that all these measures have a considerable environmental impact, notably on waste generation and air pollution. Waste generation is increased due to the implementation of all these preventive measures. While lockdowns decrease air pollution, unsustainable management of face mask waste and temperature-controlled supply chains of vaccination potentially increases air pollution.

     

Quorum sensing regulation methods and their effects on biofilm in biological waste treatment systems: A review

• Quorum sensing enhancement and inhibition methods are summarized. • Effects of quorum sensing regulation on biofilm are reviewed. • Current knowledge gaps and research challenges are proposed. Quorum sensing (QS) plays an important role in microbial aggregation control. Recently, the optimization of biological waste treatment systems by QS regulation gained an increasing attention. The effects of QS regulation on treatment performances and biofilm were frequently investigated. To understand the state of art of QS regulation, this review summarizes the methods of QS enhancement and QS inhibition in biological waste treatment systems. Typical QS enhancement methods include adding exogenous QS molecules, adding QS accelerants and cultivating QS bacteria, while typical QS inhibition methods include additions of quorum quenching (QQ) bacteria, QS-degrading enzymes, QS-degrading oxidants, and QS inhibitors. The specific improvements after applying these QS regulation methods in different treatment systems are concluded. In addition, the effects of QS regulation methods on biofilm in biological waste treatment systems are reviewed in terms of biofilm formation, extracellular polymeric substances production, microbial viability, and microbial community. In the end, the knowledge gaps in current researches are analyzed, and the requirements for future study are suggested.     

多溴联苯醚、六溴环十二烷和四溴双酚A在环境中污染现状的研究进展

作为最主要的三大传统溴系阻燃剂(BFRs),多溴联苯醚(PBDEs)、六溴环十二烷(HBCD)、四溴双酚A(TBBPA)具有半挥发性、环境持久性和远距离传输性,目前在全球各种环境介质、生物体内广泛存在.毒理学研究表明,PBDEs、HBCD、TBBPA均具有明显的生物毒性和致癌性,对生态环境和人体健康存在潜在危害.本文简...     

Chromium in intertidal sediments of the Clyde,UK: potential for remobilisation and bioaccumulation

Detailed surveys of intertidal sediments have been performed along the north and south shores of the Inner Clyde estuary, UK. Surface sediment data reveal significant spatial variation in Cr content and an association with major sediment characteristics and location within the estuary. Depth variation for Cr and other heavy metals cannot be explained by variation in major geochemical controls such as grain size and organic matter and highlights the impact of historical contamination on sediment quality. These elevated levels at depth may still have environmental impact through redox-reactivity, in association with iron and manganese. Sequential extraction of sediments and pore water analysis of Cr(VI) and Cr(III) provide detailed information on release potential from the sediments. The implication of Cr mobility for biota in the estuary has been assessed by the analysis of a common marine bivalve, Mytilus edulis (Blue Mussel) and a burrowing polychaete, Nereis diversicolor (rag worm) from a number of survey sites. Bioconcentration factors for Mytilus indicate that the weakly held portion of sediment Cr is available for uptake and in the case of Nereis, bioaccumulation appears to be inhibited by sediment organic matter.     

Identifying habitat patches and potential ecological corridors for remnant Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus japonicus) populations in Japan

The Japanese National Biodiversity Strategy 2010 calls for the creation of ecological networks as a biodiversity conservation policy. However, there is an obvious lack of information on the spatial distribution of many species and a lack of scientific methods for examining habitat requirements to establish the need for constructing these networks for target species. This study presents a quantitative method for assessing the need for ecological networks through modeling the potential geographic distributions of species based on a case study of local populations of Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus japonicus) in Fuji and Tanzawa, Japan. A total of 1541 point records of occurrences of Asiatic black bears and 11 potential predictors were analyzed in a GIS environment. After a predictive distributional map was obtained using the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) algorithm, a gap analysis was carried out and population size was estimated. Approximately 24% of the bear's predicted habitat area fell within a wildlife protection area, 2% within a nature reserve, and 37% within natural parks. Conservation forest comprised 54% of the total area of predicted habitat; of this, national forest comprised 2%, and private and communal forest comprised 37%. The total estimated Asiatic black bear population in this region was 242, with 179 individuals in the Fuji local population, 26 in the Tanzawa local population, and 37 in the corridor patch between the two local populations. Our study also found a potential corridor connecting the Fuji and Tanzawa local populations, as well as potential habitat corridors in the Fuji region containing subpopulations on Mt. Fuji (119 individuals) and Mt. Kenashi (53 individuals). An additional subpopulation on Mt. Ashitaka (7 individuals) is isolated and not fully protected by a zoning plan. Mt. Furo's subpopulation is considered to be almost extinct, although black bears were observed here until 2002 based on the report by Mochizuki et al. (2005). The total black bear population of the Fuji-Tanzawa region is considered to be “endangered”; thus, an adequate population size might be difficult to maintain even if this region were to be internally connected by means of an ecological network.     

Prior residency advantage for Atlantic salmon in the wild: effects of habitat quality

Prior residency advantages have been explained by an asymmetry between the ‘owner’ and the ‘intruder’ in fighting ability (resource-holding potential) or motivation (value asymmetry (VA)). Here, we tested for the extent of prior residence effects in individually tagged Atlantic salmon juveniles being released in two bouts (4 days apart) during spring along a natural stream, and recaptured 3 months later. A prior residency advantage was detected both in terms of body growth, energy density and male gonad size. As we controlled for effects of initial body size, which correlates with dominance, these findings are in accordance with the VA hypothesis. The growth advantage of first arrivals also increased with local shelter abundance in the stream, which can be expected if a higher resource value of the habitat results in a higher defence motivation. We also found a prior residence effect on spatial distribution, with the second arrivals within each release site being recaptured further downstream. No effect on apparent survival rates was found. The observed reduced growth and energy density may have fitness consequences for the second arrivals, both in terms of lower winter survival rates and later age at maturity. For mature male parr, both decreased body and gonad growth may give an additional disadvantage through reduced fertilization rates during breeding. These costs may help to explain the tendency for stationary behaviour of stream salmonids, as the potential benefits of moving into less crowded areas would be reduced by the risk of becoming an intruder. Prior residence effects may therefore have influenced the evolution of movement behaviour in these organisms.     

环境因子及外源化学物质对植物花色素苷的影响

花色素苷对彩叶植物叶片呈色以及果实果皮着色的作用受到广泛重视,但关于环境因子以及外源化学物质对花色素苷的影响研究缺乏系统评述.依据国内外近10年来的相关文献.在阐述花色素苷的生理作用和实用价值的基础上,综述了光照、温度、水分、pH值等有关环境因子和有机物、植物生长调节剂、矿质元素等外源化学物质对植物花色素苷积累、含量变化以及稳定性的影响及其生理机制;结果表明,对多数彩叶植物而言,全光照和较强光照、较低的生长温度、适度的土壤和大气干旱以及低pH值介质条件有利于花色素苷的合成、稳定和积累;而外源物质中,可溶糖、柠檬酸等有机物能促进花色素苷的合成和积累,乙烯、脱落酸(ABA)、金雀异黄素(GNT)、5.氨基乙酰丙酸(ALA)和茉莉酸(JA)等生长调节物质具有促进花色素苷合成和积累的作用,铜、钾、钙等矿质元素可促进花色素苷的合成和积累.论文还分析归纳了该领域尚待解决的问题(如外界因子对不同种类的花色素苷合成及比例变化的影响有何不同?),并指出了今后的研究方向,重点应明确环境因子是如何影响花色素苷的代谢路径以及不同种类植物中的花色素苷对外界影响因子响应机制的差异等.     

Responses of pond-breeding amphibians to wildfire: short-term patterns in occupancy and colonization.

Wildland fires are expected to become more frequent and severe in many ecosystems, potentially posing a threat to many sensitive species. We evaluated the effects of a large, stand-replacement wildfire on three species of pond-breeding amphibians by estimating changes in occupancy of breeding sites during the three years before and after the fire burned 42 of 83 previously surveyed wetlands. Annual occupancy and colonization for each species was estimated using recently developed models that incorporate detection probabilities to provide unbiased parameter estimates. We did not find negative effects of the fire on the occupancy or colonization rates of the long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum). Instead, its occupancy was higher across the study area after the fire, possibly in response to a large snowpack that may have facilitated colonization of unoccupied wetlands. Naive data (uncorrected for detection probability) for the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) initially led to the conclusion of increased occupancy and colonization in wetlands that burned. After accounting for temporal and spatial variation in detection probabilities, however, it was evident that these parameters were relatively stable in both areas before and after the fire. We found a similar discrepancy between naive and estimated occupancy of A. macrodactylum that resulted from different detection probabilities in burned and control wetlands. The boreal toad (Bufo boreas) was not found breeding in the area prior to the fire but colonized several wetlands the year after they burned. Occupancy by B. boreas then declined during years 2 and 3 following the fire. Our study suggests that the amphibian populations we studied are resistant to wildfire and that B. boreas may experience short-term benefits from wildfire. Our data also illustrate how naive presence-non-detection data can provide misleading results.     

VMT reduction and potential environmental effects with a tradable credits scheme: a simulation case study of Great Britain

We investigate the influence of a tradable credits scheme (TCS) on travel demand and vehicle emissions, based on the vehicle miles travelled (VMT). With a microeconomic quantitative analysis scheme, a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) function is used as an approach to model the annual mileage for different travel purposes. An illustration is given for the effects of a TCS on emission mitigation based on historical data for Great Britain. A scenario analysis demonstrates that a TCS can achieve a target for reducing the number of private trips. Besides a movement of trips from the private car mode to public modes, there is also some trip restraint, with individuals choosing not to take some trips. Compared with Fowkes et al.’s research on road pricing in London, the research illustrates that a TCS can be designed to have similar effects to a road pricing scheme. We also demonstrate that a TCS could bring emission changes arising from changes in VMT.     

Estimating the abundance of mouse populations of known size: promises and pitfalls of new methods.

Knowledge of animal abundance is fundamental to many ecological studies. Frequently, researchers cannot determine true abundance, and so must estimate it using a method such as mark-recapture or distance sampling. Recent advances in abundance estimation allow one to model heterogeneity with individual covariates or mixture distributions and to derive multimodel abundance estimators that explicitly address uncertainty about which model parameterization best represents truth. Further, it is possible to borrow information on detection probability across several populations when data are sparse. While promising, these methods have not been evaluated using mark-recapture data from populations of known abundance, and thus far have largely been overlooked by ecologists. In this paper, we explored the utility of newly developed mark-recapture methods for estimating the abundance of 12 captive populations of wild house mice (Mus musculus). We found that mark-recapture methods employing individual covariates yielded satisfactory abundance estimates for most populations. In contrast, model sets with heterogeneity formulations consisting solely of mixture distributions did not perform well for several of the populations. We show through simulation that a higher number of trapping occasions would have been necessary to achieve good estimator performance in this case. Finally, we show that simultaneous analysis of data from low abundance populations can yield viable abundance estimates.     

Potential effects of environmental contamination on Yuma Myotis demography and population growth.

Unplanned natural and anthropogenic disasters provide unique opportunities for investigating the influence of perturbations on population vital rates and species recovery times. We investigated the potential effects of a major pesticide spill by comparing annual survival rates using mark-recapture techniques on a riparian bat species, Yuma Myotis (Myotis yumanensis). Demography and population dynamics for most bat species remain poorly understood despite advances in mark-recapture estimation and modeling techniques. We compared survival and population growth rates of two roost populations exposed to a large chemical (metam sodium) spill in the upper Sacramento River in Northern California with two roost populations outside the contaminated area from 1992 to 1996. Hypotheses about long-term effects of the spill on female juvenile and adult survival were tested using an information-theoretic approach (AIC). Working hypotheses included effects of age, chemical spill, and time trend on survival. Female adult survival was higher than female juvenile survival across all sites, suggesting stage-specific mortality risks. Model-averaged estimates of female juvenile survival in the contaminated area (0.50-0.74) were lower than in control roosts (0.60-0.78) for each year in the study, suggesting that the spill may have reduced juvenile survival for several years. Female adult survival (0.73-0.89) did not appear to be strongly affected by the spill during the years of the study. There was an increase in survival for both stage-classes across all populations during the study period, which may have been caused by the end of an extended drought in California in the winter of 1993. The spill-affected population was in decline for the first year of the study as indicated by an estimated growth rate (lambda) < 1, but population growth rates increased during the four-year period.     

Applications of hollow nanomaterials in environmental remediation and monitoring: A review

Hollow nanomaterials have attracted significant attention because of their high chemical and thermal stability, high specific surface area, high porosity, low density, and good biocompatibility. These state-of-the-art nanomaterials have been shown to efficiently adsorb heavy metals, and volatile hazardous substances, photodegrade persistent organic pollutants, and other compounds, and inactivate bacteria. Such properties have enabled the use of these materials for environmental remediation, such as in water/wastewater treatment, soil remediation, air purification, and substance monitoring, etc. Hollow nanomaterials showed higher photocatalytic activity than those without hollow structure owing to their high active surface area, reduced diffusion resistance, and improved accessibility. And, the Doping method could improve the photocatalytic performance of hollow nanomaterials further under visible light. Moreover, the synthetic mechanisms and methods of these materials are important because their size and morphology help to determine their precise properties. This article reviews the environmental applications and potential risks of these materials, in addition to their syntheses. Finally, an outlook into the development of these materials is provided.     

Estrogen content and relative performance of Japanese and British sewage treatment plants and their potential impact on endocrine disruption.

Both the UK and Japan are densely populated islands with relatively short rivers. Therefore, both countries are likely to be highly exposed to contaminants emanating from their human populations. This review considered how effective the different sewage treatment facilities of the two countries are at removing steroid estrogens from the effluent. The methods of estrogen analysis in sewage effluent, the number and importance of different sewage treatment types, and their apparent effectiveness at removing estrogens were all considered. In both countries, the activated sludge treatment was dominant in terms of people served and water discharged. The analytical techniques used by those studying estrogen concentrations in effluents in both countries were broadly similar. Activated sludge plant (ASP) effluent in the UK typically contained around 2 ng/L estradiol (E2) and 8 ng/L estrone (E1), while Japanese ASPs typically reported E2 as below detection, and 10 ng/L E1 in their effluents. When estrogenic bioassays were used in Japan, they typically record an estrogenic potency of 10 ng/L E2 equivalents. Even taking into account ethinylestradiol (EE2) (not found in Japanese effluents), the overall estrogenicity of British sewage effluents would appear to be the same as that of Japanese sewage effluents (around 10 ng/L E2 equivalents). This suggests that the ASPs serving the large urban communities in Japan and the UK would have effluent of similar estrogenic potencies. Less information is available about the more numerous biological (trickling) filter plants (BFP) in the UK and oxygen ditches (OD) in Japan which tend to serve smaller, more rural communities. The available data would suggest that the BFPs are significantly less efficient than the ODs at removing E1. This would suggest that in similar circumstances, British headwaters (where this sewage treatment plant (STP) type is often found) might be more at risk from endocrine disruption than their Japanese counterparts. Overall, the apparently higher incidence of endocrine disruption in British wild fish than in Japanese wild fish cannot be attributed to differences in the efficiency of their respective STPs.     

A review on historical trajectories and spatially explicit scenarios of land-use and land-cover changes in China

ABSTRACT

Land use in China has changed remarkably over the past centuries with manifold implications for sustainable development. Investigation and projection of the land-use and land-cover changes (LUCC) have therefore become critical to promote the understanding of the LUCC process and the interactions with human societies. Scientists had devoted great efforts to create, process, and interpret comprehensive historical land-use/cover datasets, and to simulate future land-use systems under different scenarios. We synthesize the literature on the historical trajectories of LUCC in China, and summarize existing efforts of scenario developments for the projection of spatially explicit LUCC. Our review therefore provides salient suggestions for future land-use change analysis.     

稀土元素的脑部蓄积性、毒性及其对人群健康的潜在危害

论述了稀土元素在动物脑部的蓄积性、对脑的毒性以及稀土区人群的脑部毒性效应，分析了稀土农业应用和稀土厂“三废”对生态环境和人群健康的潜在危害。