Ambio’s legacy on monitoring,impact, and management of acid rain: This article belongs to Ambio’s 50th Anniversary Collection. Theme: Acidification

Early studies published in Ambio showed large-scale acidification of lakes in southern Sweden and Norway from acid rain. These studies were important for delimiting various scientific issues and thus for eventually contributing to legislation, which reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and helped to mitigate this major environmental problem. Long-term studies and monitoring in Sweden and Norway and at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire helped guide this legislation in Europe and in the USA.     

NABat: A top-down,bottom-up solution to collaborative continental-scale monitoring

Collaborative monitoring over broad scales and levels of ecological organization can inform conservation efforts necessary to address the contemporary biodiversity crisis. An important challenge to collaborative monitoring is motivating local engagement with enough buy-in from stakeholders while providing adequate top-down direction for scientific rigor, quality control, and coordination. Collaborative monitoring must reconcile this inherent tension between top-down control and bottom-up engagement. Highly mobile and cryptic taxa, such as bats, present a particularly acute challenge. Given their scale of movement, complex life histories, and rapidly expanding threats, understanding population trends of bats requires coordinated broad-scale collaborative monitoring. The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) reconciles top-down, bottom-up tension with a hierarchical master sample survey design, integrated data analysis, dynamic data curation, regional monitoring hubs, and knowledge delivery through web-based infrastructure. NABat supports collaborative monitoring across spatial and organizational scales and the full annual lifecycle of bats.     

Hg concentrations and stable isotope variations in tropical fish species of a gold-mining-impacted watershed in French Guiana

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The aim of the study was to determine if gold-mining activities could impact the mercury (Hg) concentrations and isotopic signatures in freshwater...     

Small-scale on-site treatment of fecal matter: comparison of treatments for resource recovery and sanitization

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - On-site small-scale sanitation is common in rural areas and areas without infrastructure, but the treatment of the collected fecal matter can be...     

Glyphosate concentrations in global freshwaters: are aquatic organisms at risk?

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Glyphosate is the most used herbicide worldwide. Many studies have reported glyphosate risks to aquatic organisms of different trophic levels....     

Soil contamination in Colombian playgrounds: effects of vehicles,construction, and traffic

The presence of potentially hazardous elements (PHEs) in playground soils is generally associated with anthropogenic sources such as vehicle traffic, industries, construction sites, and biomass burning. Studies indicate that PHEs are harmful to human health and may even be carcinogenic. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the physicochemical, morphological, and mineralogical properties of soil samples from three public playgrounds located in the cities of Bogota, Medellin, and Barranquilla. Besides, the possible impacts caused by the aerodynamics of particles in Colombian cities were verified. The morphology, composition, and structure of the nanoparticles (NPs) (< 100 nm) present in these soils were evaluated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) equipped with high-precision field emission (FE) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). Soil samples were predominantly feldspar, quartz, and, to a lesser extent, clay minerals, carbonates, and hematites. The average content of PHEs was anthropogenically enriched in relation to the upper continental crust. As and Sn showed a large spatial variation, indicating the influence of local sources, such as vehicle traffic and industries. There is an inverse relationship between the total concentrations of some elements and their leachable fractions. The accumulation of traffic-derived PHEs has a negative impact on human health and the environment, which is alarming, especially for elements such as Pb, Sb, or As. Therefore, the presence of PHEs should receive greater attention from public health professionals, and limits should be set and exposures controlled. This study includes the construction of a baseline that provides basic information on pollution, its sources, and exposure routes for humans in the vicinity of Colombia’s major cities, characterized by their increasing urbanization and industrialization.

     

Can the environmental health of urban centers be assessed through pollutants trapped in lakes? A study case in the biggest city of the southern hemisphere

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Air and water quality in urban centers are summited to pollution from different sources, such as industrial activities, traffic, and wastewater...     

镧-铅复合污染下AM真菌对玉米生长和镧、铅吸收的影响

采用温室盆栽试验的方法,模拟不同程度的镧-铅复合污染土壤(50、200、800 mg·kg~(-1)),研究接种丛枝菌根(arbuscular mycorrhizal,AM)、真菌Claroideoglomus etunicatum(CE)和Rhizophagus intraradices(RI)对玉米(Zea mays L.)菌根侵染率、生物量、矿质营养元素吸收、C∶N∶P生态化学计量比、稀土镧(La)和重金属铅(Pb)吸收、转运的影响,旨在为稀土-重金属复合污染土壤的治理和修复提供科学依据.结果表明,AM真菌CE和RI均与玉米建立了共生关系,平均菌根侵染率为26.7%~95.8%;随着La-Pb复合污染含量的增加,玉米植株菌根侵染率、地上部和根部生物量以及N、P、K、Ca、Mg这5种矿质营养元素含量显著降低,而玉米植株C∶P和N∶P以及地上部和根部La、Pb含量显著增加.接种2种AM真菌使玉米植株生物量显著提高了17.8%~158.9%,地上部和根部P含量显著提高了24.5%~153.8%,降低了C∶P和N∶P,符合生长速率假设.在3种程度La-Pb复合污染含量土壤上,AM真菌使玉米植株根部Pb含量显著增加了51.3%~67.7%,地上部Pb含量显著降低了16.0%~67.7%,Pb从玉米根部向地上部的转运率降低了31.5%~54.7%;同时,接种AM真菌显著增加了轻度LaPb复合污染土壤上玉米植株的La含量,在中度La-Pb复合污染土壤上却显著减少了玉米地上部的La含量,增加了玉米根部的La含量,抑制了La从根部向地上部的转运,重度La-Pb复合污染土壤上均没有显著影响.试验结果初步证明,AM真菌具有促进稀土-重金属复合污染土壤植物修复的潜力,对于稀土-重金属复合污染土壤生态系统的植被恢复具有潜在应用价值.