Targeting aquatic microcontaminants for monitoring: exposure categorization and application to the Swiss situation

Background, aim, and scope  

Aquatic microcontaminants (MCs) comprise diverse chemical classes, such as pesticides, biocides, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and industrial chemicals. For water pollution control and the evaluation of water protection measures, it is crucial to screen for MCs. However, the selection and prioritization of which MCs to screen for is rather difficult and complex. Existing methods usually are strongly limited because of a lack of screening regulations or unavailability of required data.     

Heavy metal contamination in the vicinity of an industrial area near Bucharest

Background, aim, and scope  

Heavy metals such as lead are well known to cause harmful health effects. Especially children are particularly susceptible to increased levels of lead in their blood. It is also a fact that lead concentration is increasing in the environment due to increased anthropogenic activity. The risk of heavy metal contamination is pronounced in the environment adjacent to large industrial complexes. In a combined case study, the environmental pollution by heavy metals was related to children’s health in the vicinity of an industrial area located 4 km south-east from Bucharest about 2 km east from the nearest town—Pantelimon. This site includes companies processing different, nonferrous solid wastes for recovery of heavy metals and producing different nonferrous alloys and lead batteries. In this paper, mainly the results of environmental sampling and analyses are summarized.     

Effects of elevated pO3 on carbon cycle between above and belowground organs of trees

Translocation of carbohydrate from leaves to roots via phloem and reallocation from roots to leaves via xylem regulate the allocation of carbon （C） between above and belowground organs of trees. To quantitatively analyze effects of elevated ozone concentrations pO3 on the internal cycle of C, juvenile beech and spruce were grown in phytotrons and exposed to ambient and elevated pO3 （i.e. twice-ambient O3 levels, restricted to 〈 150 ppb） for two growing seasons. The translocation of C in the phloem and xylem was quantitatively studied by investigating the phloem/xylem-loading of sugars, the differentiation of stem conductive tissue and the hourly water flow through the stem. Results in the present study shown, elevated pO3 significantly decreased C translocation from shoot to roots in beech by reducing both sugar concentration in the phloem and conductive phloem area. Elevated pO3 also significantly decreased C reallocation from the roots to the shoot in beech by reducing both of sugar concentration in the xylem and transpiration rate. The adverse effects of elevated pO3 on C translocation in the phloem and xylem, however, were small in spruce. Contrasting to beech, spruce is less sensitive to elevated pO3, regarding to phloem differentiation and sugar concentrations in the phloem and xylem.