Impact of peri-urban landscape on the organic and mineral contamination of pond waters and related risk assessment

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Ponds are important for their ecological value and for the ecosystem services they provide to human societies, but they are strongly affected by human...     

Linearized and nonlinearized modellings for comparative uptake assessment of metal-organic framework-derived nanocomposite towards sulfonamide antibiotics

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The emergent occurrence of sulfonamide species involving sulfadiazine (SDZ) and sulfamethazine (SMZ) in aquatic systems can cause a wide range of...     

Size distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a roadway tunnel in Lisbon, Portugal

Atmospheric aerosols of four aerodynamic size ranges were collected using high volume cascade impactors in an extremely busy roadway tunnel in Lisbon (Portugal). Dust deposited on the tunnel walls and guardrails was also collected. Average particle mass concentrations in the tunnel atmosphere were more than 30 times higher than in the outside urban background air, revealing its origins almost exclusively from fresh vehicle emissions. Most of the aerosol mass was concentrated in submicrometer fractions (65%), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were even more concentrated in the finer particles with an average of 84% of total PAH present in sizes smaller than 0.49 μm. The most abundant PAH were methylated phenanthrenes, fluoranthene and pyrene. About 46% of the total PAH mass was attributed to lower molecular weight compounds (two and three rings), suggesting a strong influence of diesel vehicle emissions on the production of local particulate PAH. The application of diagnostic ratios confirmed the relevance of this source of PAH in the tunnel ambient air. Deposited dust presented PAH profiles similar to the coarser aerosol size range, in agreement with the predominant origin of coarser aerosol particles from soil dust resuspension and vehicle wear products.     

Antibiotic contaminants in coastal wetlands from Vietnamese shrimp farming

Background and purpose  

Shrimp culture has been expanded rapidly in recent years in coastal wetland zone of Vietnam due to favorable natural conditions. However, this industry has caused several negative impacts to the environment. One of the critical issues is the excessive application of antibiotics including human medicines. These chemicals could be released from shrimp ponds and then accumulated and contaminated of the ecosystem. This review article discusses a whole range of findings that address various aspects of the usage, occurrence and potentially environmental risks of antibiotics released from shrimp farming, with emphasis on the South Vietnam coastal wetland.     

Managing Fleet Capacity Effectively Under Second-Hand Market Redistribution

Fishing capacity management policies have been traditionally implemented at national level with national targets for capacity reduction. More recently, capacity management policies have increasingly targeted specific fisheries. French fisheries spatially vary along the French coastline and are associated to specific regions. Capacity management policies, however, ignore the capital mobility associated with second-hand vessel trade between regions. This is not an issue for national policies but could limit the effectiveness of regional capacity management policies. A gravity model and a random-effect Poisson regression model are used to analyze the determinants and spatial extent of the second-hand market in France. This study is based on panel data from the French Atlantic Ocean between 1992 and 2009. The trade flows between trading partners is found to increase with their sizes and to be spatially concentrated. Despite the low trade flows between regions, a net impact analysis shows that fishing capacity is redistributed by the second-hand market to regions on the Channel and Aquitaine from central regions. National capacity management policies (constructions/destructions) have induced a net decrease in regional fleet capacity with varying magnitude across regions. Unless there is a change of policy instruments or their scale of implementation, the operation of the second-hand market decreases the effectiveness of regional capacity management policies in regions on the Channel and Aquitaine.     

Solid beef cattle manure application impacts on soil properties and 17β-estradiol fate in a clay loam soil

Livestock manure applied to agricultural land is one of the ways natural steroid estrogens enter soils. To examine the impact of long-term solid beef cattle (Bos Taurus) manure on soil properties and 17β-estradiol sorption and mineralization, this study utilized a soil that had received beef cattle manure over 35 years. The 17β-estradiol was strongly sorbed and sorption significantly increased (P < 0.05) with increasing soil organic carbon content (SOC) and with an increasing annual rate of beef cattle manure. The 17β-estradiol mineralization half-life was significantly negatively correlated, and the total amount of 17β-estradiol mineralized at 90 days (MAX) was significantly positively correlated with 17β-estradiol sorption. The long-term rate of manure application had no significant effect on MAX, but the addition of fresh beef cattle manure in the laboratory resulted in significantly (P < 0.05) smaller MAX values. None of the treatments showed MAX values exceeding one-third of the 17β-estradiol applied.     

Survey regarding the occurrence of selected organic micropollutants in the groundwaters of overseas departments

To collect a complete dataset regarding the occurrence of organic substances in groundwater, this study presents the examination of 66 organic contaminants in the groundwater of overseas departments, including pesticides, pharmaceutical compounds, hormones and some industrial substances. The selective and sensitive analytical methods are described. These techniques begin with solid-phase extraction (SPE) followed by analysis using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-ToF-MS). The paper summarises the analytical results from 40 sampling points collected during two campaigns in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Mayotte and Guiana, representing 80 samples. Of the 66 target substances, 36 were determined at least once. Among the most frequently detected are bisphenol A (frequency, 96 %; max., 7,400 ng/L), caffeine (frequency, 91 %; max., 1,240 ng/L), pentachlorophenol (frequency, 55 %; max., 418 ng/L), and carbamazepine (frequency, 56 %; max., 22 ng/L). The results do not put in evidence that the origin of the sample or climatic characteristics of these regions influence the dilution and release of micropollutants.     

Assessing hypotheses about nesting site occupancy dynamics

Hypotheses about habitat selection developed in the evolutionary ecology framework assume that individuals, under some conditions, select breeding habitat based on expected fitness in different habitat. The relationship between habitat quality and fitness may be reflected by breeding success of individuals, which may in turn be used to assess habitat quality. Habitat quality may also be assessed via local density: if high-quality sites are preferentially used, high density may reflect high-quality habitat. Here we assessed whether site occupancy dynamics vary with site surrogates for habitat quality. We modeled nest site use probability in a seabird subcolony (the Black-legged Kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla) over a 20-year period. We estimated site persistence (an occupied site remains occupied from time t to t+1) and colonization through two subprocesses: first colonization (site creation at the timescale of the study) and recolonization (a site is colonized again after being deserted). Our model explicitly incorporated site-specific and neighboring breeding success and conspecific density in the neighborhood. Our results provided evidence that reproductively "successful" sites have a higher persistence probability than "unsuccessful" ones. Analyses of site fidelity in marked birds and of survival probability showed that high site persistence predominantly reflects site fidelity, not immediate colonization by new owners after emigration or death of previous owners. There is a negative quadratic relationship between local density and persistence probability. First colonization probability decreases with density, whereas recolonization probability is constant. This highlights the importance of distinguishing initial colonization and recolonization to understand site occupancy. All dynamics varied positively with neighboring breeding success. We found evidence of a positive interaction between site-specific and neighboring breeding success. We addressed local population dynamics using a site occupancy approach integrating hypotheses developed in behavioral ecology to account for individual decisions. This allows development of models of population and metapopulation dynamics that explicitly incorporate ecological and evolutionary processes.     

Green synthesis of ZrO2 nanoparticles and nanocomposites for biomedical and environmental applications: a review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Pollution and diseases such as the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) are major issues that may be solved partly by nanotechnology. Here we review the synthesis of...     

Extirpation and Recolonization in a Metapopulation of an Endangered Fish, the Tidewater Goby

Abstract: The tidewater goby ( Eucyclogobius newberryi ), an endangered species in the United States, occurs in a series of isolated coastal wetlands in California. Using historical presence-absence data and our own surveys, we estimated annual rates of extirpation and recolonization for several populations of the goby in southern California. As predicted, large wetlands had lower rates of extirpation than small wetlands. There was a negative but statistically nonsignificant correlation between recolonization rate and distance to the nearest northerly source population. Populations at small sites were sensitive to drought, presumably because droughts can eliminate suitable habitat at small wetlands. Populations in small wetlands have declined over time, even after accounting for variation in stream flow, supporting the species' endangered status. Our study emphasizes the need to understand metapopulation dynamics for conserving species where the unit of conservation is a local population. It is also emphasizes the importance of not treating metapopulations as identical units. Finally, our results provide a means for describing the decline of a species that is complex in time and space and provide insight into how to target protection measures among metapopulations.