Temporal distribution patterns of metals in water,sediment, and components of the trophic structure in a tropical coastal lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Trophic transfer and bioaccumulation of trace metals have a profound impact on the structure and function of coastal areas; however, the metal...     

How to stay together? Habitat use by three sympatric sharks in the western coast of Baja California Sur,Mexico

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Sharks are top predators and play an important role in the regulation of marine ecosystems at lower trophic position. Mustelus californicus, Sphyrna...     

Distribution and accumulation of major and trace elements in water,sediment, and fishes from protected areas of the Atlantic Rainforest

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Environmental pollution affects the quality of the natural environment where major and trace elements have been commonly found to accumulate in biotic...     

SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in indoor and outdoor size-segregated aerosol samples

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - We aimed to determine the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in indoor and outdoor size-segregated aerosol samples (PM10-2.5, PM2.5). Five outdoor daily...     

Compositional analysis of topsoil metals and its associations with cancer mortality using spatial misaligned data

The presence of toxic metals in soil per se, and in soil impacted by mining, industry, agriculture and urbanisation in particular, is a major concern for both human health and ecotoxicology. The dual aim of this study was: to ascertain whether topsoil composition could influence the spatial distribution of mortality due to different types of cancer and to identify possible errors committed by epidemiological studies which analyse soil composition data as a closed number system. We conducted an ecological cancer mortality study, covering 861,440 cancer deaths (27 cancer sites) in 7917 Spanish mainland towns, from 1999 to 2008. Topsoil levels of Al, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn were determined by ICP-MS at 13,317 sampling points. We transformed the topsoil data in two ways, i.e. log transformation and centred logratio transformation. Principal factor analysis was performed to obtain independent latent factors for the transformed variables. To estimate the effect on mortality of topsoil factor loadings, we fitted Besag, York and Mollié models embedded in geostatistical-spatial models. This model included soil sample locations and town centroids (non-aligned data), fitted using the integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) as a tool for Bayesian inference and stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE). All results were adjusted for socio-demographic variables. The results indicated that soil composition could have an influence on the spatial distribution and mortality patterns of cancer. The analysis adjusted for socio-demographic variables showed excess male mortality due to digestive system tumours in areas with soils containing higher Cd, Pb, Zn, Mn and Cu concentrations, bladder cancer in areas with soils containing higher Cd concentrations, and brain cancer in areas with soils containing As. In both sexes, cancer of oesophagus was associated with soils containing a higher lead content, while lung cancer was associated with soils containing a higher copper content. Stress should be laid on the importance of taking into account the compositional nature of the data in this type of analysis.     

Reliable analysis of chlorophenoxy herbicides in soil and water by magnetic solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography

Environmental Chemistry Letters - There is no previous work on the determination of chlorophenoxy acid herbicides in soils. Here we analysed six chlorophenoxy acid herbicides using magnetic solid...     

Aerobic oxidation of secondary benzyl alcohols catalyzed by phosphinite-based palladium pincer complexes

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Aerobic oxidation of organic compounds is receiving attention because molecular oxygen is an abundant, cheap and comparatively safe reagent. Several catalyst...     

Evolution and decay of gravity wavefields in weak-rotating environments: a laboratory study

Gravity waves are prominent physical features that play a fundamental role in transport processes of stratified aquatic ecosystems. In a two-layer stratified basin, the equations of motion for the first vertical mode are equivalent to the linearised shallow water equations for a homogeneous fluid. We adopted this framework to examine the spatiotemporal structure of gravity wavefields weakly affected by the background rotation of a single-layer system of equivalent thickness \(h_{\ell }\), via laboratory experiments performed in a cylindrical basin mounted on a turntable. The wavefield was generated by the release of a diametral linear tilt of the air–water interface, \(\eta _{\ell }\), inducing a basin-scale perturbation that evolved in response to the horizontal pressure gradient and the rotation-induced acceleration. The basin-scale wave response was controlled by an initial perturbation parameter, \({\mathcal{A}}_{*} = \eta _{0}/h_{\ell }\), where \(\eta _{0}\) was the initial displacement of the air–water interface, and by the strength of the background rotation controlled by the Burger number, \({\mathcal{S}}\). We set the experiments to explore a transitional regime from moderate- to weak-rotational environments, \(0.65\le {\mathcal{S}} \le 2\), for a wide range of initial perturbations, \(0.05\le {\mathcal{A}}_{*}\le 1.0\). The evolution of \(\eta _{\ell }\) was registered over a diametral plane by recording a laser-induced optical fluorescence sheet and using a capacitive sensor located near the lateral boundary. The evolution of the gravity wavefields showed substantial variability as a function of the rotational regimes and the radial position. The results demonstrate that the strength of rotation and nonlinearities control the bulk decay rate of the basin-scale gravity waves. The ratio between the experimentally estimated damping timescale, \(T_{d}\), and the seiche period of the basin, \(T_{g}\), has a median value of \(T_{d}/T_{g}\approx 11\), a maximum value of \(T_{d}/T_{g}\approx 10^{3}\) and a minimum value of \(T_{d}/T_{g}\approx 5\). The results of this study are significant for the understanding the dynamics of gravity waves in waterbodies weakly affected by Coriolis acceleration, such as mid- to small-size lakes.     

The scope and severity of white-nose syndrome on hibernating bats in North America

Assessing the scope and severity of threats is necessary for evaluating impacts on populations to inform conservation planning. Quantitative threat assessment often requires monitoring programs that provide reliable data over relevant spatial and temporal scales, yet such programs can be difficult to justify until there is an apparent stressor. Leveraging efforts of wildlife management agencies to record winter counts of hibernating bats, we collated data for 5 species from over 200 sites across 27 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces from 1995 to 2018 to determine the impact of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a deadly disease of hibernating bats. We estimated declines of winter counts of bat colonies at sites where the invasive fungus that causes WNS (Pseudogymnoascus destructans) had been detected to assess the threat impact of WNS. Three species undergoing species status assessment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Myotis septentrionalis, Myotis lucifugus, and Perimyotis subflavus) declined by more than 90%, which warrants classifying the severity of the WNS threat as extreme based on criteria used by NatureServe. The scope of the WNS threat as defined by NatureServe criteria was large (36% of Myotis lucifugus range) to pervasive (79% of Myotis septentrionalis range) for these species. Declines for 2 other species (Myotis sodalis and Eptesicus fuscus) were less severe but still qualified as moderate to serious based on NatureServe criteria. Data-sharing across jurisdictions provided a comprehensive evaluation of scope and severity of the threat of WNS and indicated regional differences that can inform response efforts at international, national, and state or provincial jurisdictions. We assessed the threat impact of an emerging infectious disease by uniting monitoring efforts across jurisdictional boundaries and demonstrated the importance of coordinated monitoring programs, such as the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat), for data-driven conservation assessments and planning.     

Sibling aggression, hatching asynchrony, and nestling mortality in the black kite (Milvus migrans)

In siblicidal species, hatching asynchrony could act to reduce sibling rivalry or promote the death of last-hatched chicks. The pattern of hatching asynchrony was experimentally altered in the black kite Milvus migrans. Hatching asynchrony in control broods was intermediate between those of experimentally synchronised and asynchronised broods. Sibling aggression and wounds on the chicks were more commonly observed early in the nestling period and in synchronous nests. Serious injuries were observed on last-hatched chicks in asynchronous nests, as were observations of intimidated or crushed chicks. Sibling aggression was related to food abundance, but some chicks died at an early age in nests with abundant food (cainism). Cainism was more commonly found in asynchronous nests. For species with facultative siblicide, moderate hatching asynchrony could be a compromise between reducing sibling rivalry and avoiding large size differences between sibs that would result in cainism. Female black kites preferentially fed the smallest chicks and exhibited behaviours to reduce sibling aggression, contrary to observations in other siblicidal species. In a highly opportunistic forager such as the black kite, a strategy may exist to protract the life of all the chicks in the brood, waiting for unpredictable situations of food overabundance. This would induce the appearance of a parent-offspring conflict over brood reduction, reflected in the existence of a possible anticipated response by some of the chicks (cainism) and in the appearance of special behaviours by the parents to selectively feed smaller chicks or reduce sibling aggression. In this facultatively siblicidal species, cainism does not seem to be the final stage of an evolutionary trend favouring the raising of high-quality chicks, but a manifestation of a parent-offspring conflict over brood size. Received: 9 March 1998 / Accepted after revision: 8 August 1998