Effects of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on marine organisms: from single-species studies to an ecosystem-based approach

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are contaminants of emerging concern that are increasing in use and have demonstrated negative effects on aquatic organisms. There is a growing body of literature reporting the effects of PPCPs on freshwater organisms, but studies on the effects of PPCPs to marine and estuarine organisms are limited. Among effect studies, the vast majority examines subcellular or cellular effects, with far fewer studies examining organismal- and community-level effects. We reviewed the current published literature on marine and estuarine algae, invertebrates, fish, and mammals exposed to PPCPs, in order to expand upon current reviews. This paper builds on previous reviews of PPCP contamination in marine environments, filling prior literature gaps and adding consideration of ecosystem function and level of knowledge across marine habitat types. Finally, we reviewed and compiled data gaps suggested by current researchers and reviewers and propose a multi-level model to expand the focus of current PPCP research beyond laboratory studies. This model includes examination of direct ecological effects including food web and disease dynamics, biodiversity, community composition, and other ecosystem-level indicators of contaminant-driven change.     

Environmental impact of exhaust emissions by Arctic shipping

Since 2005, a dramatic decline of the Arctic sea-ice extent is observed which results in an increase of shipping activities. Even though this provides commercial and social development opportunities, the resulting environmental impacts need to be investigated and monitored. In order to understand the impact of shipping in arctic areas, the method described in this paper determines the travel time, fuel consumption and resulting exhaust emissions of ships navigating in arctic waters. The investigated case studies are considering ship particulars as well as environmental conditions with special focus on ice scenarios. Travel time, fuel consumption and exhaust gas emission were investigated for three different vessels, using different passages of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in different seasons of years 1960, 2000 and 2040. The presented results show the sensitivity of vessel performance and amount of exhaust emissions to optimize arctic traffic with respect to efficiency, safety and environmental impact.     

Enhanced degradation of the antibiotic tetracycline by heterogeneous electro-Fenton with pyrite catalysis

There is actually increasing concern about the accumulation of antibiotics, such as tetracycline, in soil and water bodies. There is therefore a need for efficient methods to degrade antibiotics and thus clean waters. Here we tested the degradation of tetracycline using the heterogeneous electro-Fenton-pyrite method and compared the results with the conventional electro-Fenton method. The reaction was performed with a boron-doped diamond or Pt anode and carbon-felt cathode allowing electrogeneration of H₂O₂ from O₂ reduction. Results show an increasing tetracycline mineralization using the following methods: anodic oxidation with electrogenerated H₂O₂, electro-Fenton and then electro-Fenton-pyrite using boron-doped diamond. Ion-exclusion HPLC revealed the complete removal of malic malonic, succinic, acetic, oxalic and oxamic acids. Nitrogen present in tetracycline was mainly mineralized in NH₄ ⁺. The higher efficiency of electro-Fenton-pyrite is explained by self-regulation of soluble Fe²⁺ and pH to 3.0 from pyrite catalyst favoring larger ^·OH generation from Fenton’s reaction.     

CFD Investigation of Particle Deposition in a Horizontal Looped Turbulent Pipe Flow

This paper presents comprehensive 3D numerical investigations on depositions of particles flowing through a horizontal pipe loop consisting of four bends. The multiphase mixture model available in FLUENT 6.2 was used in this study. In this numerical simulation, five different particle sizes have been used as secondary phases to calculate real multiphase effect in which inter-particle interaction has been considered. The deposition of particles along the periphery of the pipe wall was investigated as a function of particle size and fluid velocity. The simulations showed that near the upstream of the bends, maximum particle concentration occurred at the bottom of the pipe. However, downstream the bends, the maximum particle concentration occurred at an angle of 60° from the bottom. The larger particles clearly showed deposition near the bottom wall except downstream. As expected, the smaller particles showed less tendency of deposition and lesser at higher velocity. This numerical investigation showed qualitative agreement with the experiments conducted by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Melbourne team for similar conditions.     

Alternative amendment for soluble phosphorus removal from poultry litter

Background, aim, and scope  

Alum (aluminum sulfate) is the currently preferred chemical amendment for phosphorus (P) treatment in poultry litter (PL). Aluminum-based drinking-water treatment residuals (Al-WTRs) are the waste by-product of the drinking-water treatment process and have been effectively used to remove P from aqueous solutions, but their effectiveness in PL water extracts has not been studied in detail. Elevated cost associated with alum could be minimized by using the equally effective WTRs to remove soluble P from PL, and they can be obtained at a minimal cost from drinking-water treatment plants.     

Quantifying population declines based on presence‐only records for red‐list assessments

Accurate trend estimates are necessary for understanding which species are declining and which are most in need of conservation action. Imperfect species detection may result in unreliable trend estimates because this may lead to the overestimation of declines. Because many management decisions are based on population trend estimates, such biases could have severe consequences for conservation policy. We used an occupancy‐modeling framework to estimate detectability and calculate nationwide population trends for 14 Swiss amphibian species both accounting for and ignoring imperfect detection. Through the application of International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List criteria to the different trend estimates, we assessed whether ignoring imperfect detection could affect conservation policy. Imperfect detection occurred for all species and detection varied substantially among species, which led to the overestimation of population declines when detectability was ignored. Consequently, accounting for imperfect detection lowered the red‐list risk category for 5 of the 14 species assessed. We demonstrate that failing to consider species detectability can have serious consequences for species management and that occupancy modeling provides a flexible framework to account for observation bias and improve assessments of conservation status. A problem inherent to most historical records is that they contain presence‐only data from which only relative declines can be estimated. A move toward the routine recording of nonobservation and absence data is essential if conservation practitioners are to move beyond this toward accurate population trend estimation.     

Chitosan-polypropylene imine dendrimer hybrid: a new ecological biomordant for cochineal dyeing of wool

The classical use of synthetic dyes is causing issues of environmental pollution and heath risk. As a consequence natural dyes are gaining interest, but the use of natural dyes still includes toxic reagents such as metals as mordants and acids to enhance color and yield. Therefore, we designed a new chitosan-polypropylene imine dendrimer hybrid at 0–2000 mg/L to treat wool before dyeing with cochineal. We compared dye exhaustion, color depth, color characteristics, and color fastness of the new process with dyed pristine and metal mordanted wool. Results show that wool pretreatment improved dye exhaustion from 48 to 88 %, shifted saturation point toward lower dye concentration from 3000 to 1000 mg/L, and improved color depth from 13.68 for pristine wool and 15.17 for metal mordanted wool to 23.89 for the new process.     

International Environmental Agreements: Design of Optimal Transfers Under Heterogeneity

International environmental agreements (IEAs) can coordinate abatement of transboundary pollutants. This paper investigates how heterogeneous countries facing a stock pollutant might structure such an agreement. In particular, we examine how an IEA might be implemented with a set of monetary transfers. The focus is on transfers that are time invariant, linear in emissions, and consistent with budget balance. There is a range of such schemes that would induce efficient emissions. We provide a simple and intuitive characterization of these penalties and describe how specific proposals might be chosen in order to facilitate compliance and implementation. Our proposals are illustrated with a simple example. We show that heterogeneity reduces the scope for penalty schemes to jointly satisfy desirable properties.     

Analytical survey of arsenic in geothermal waters from sites in Kyushu,Japan, and a method for removing arsenic using magnetite

The objective of this study was to survey the cation and anion contents of geothermal waters to gather fundamental information on geographical variations. Sixteen sites in hot spring areas on the island of Kyushu in Japan were studied. The study focused on the arsenic content of the samples. Very high arsenic concentrations (more than 0.1 mg/l) were detected in most of the geothermal waters sampled. High contents of boron and fluoride (more than 1.0 mg/l) were also detected in some samples. Arsenic removal was performed on a laboratory scale using columns packed with a magnetite-type adsorbent. The reduction of arsenic contamination to a concentration of less than 0.01 mg/l could be achieved in the early stages of adsorption (bed volume = 200).