Showing papers in "Science of The Total Environment in 2018"

TL;DR: This paper provides a comprehensive ecological and health risk assessment on the heavy metals in soils in Chinese industrial and agricultural regions and thus provides insights for the policymakers regarding exposure reduction and management.

TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive assessment indicates that chemical stabilization serves as a temporary soil remediation technique, phytoremediation needs improvement in efficiency, surface capping and landfilling are applicable to small, serious-contamination sites, while solidification and vitrification are the last remediation option.

TL;DR: Current knowledge on available methods for the quantification and identification of plastic in soil, the quantity and possible input pathways of plastic into soil, and its fate in soil are reviewed are reviewed to ensure the applicability of these methods for soil needs to be tested.

TL;DR: Analysis of zebrafish Danio rerio and nematode Caenorhabditis elegans used as model organisms for microplastic exposure in freshwater pelagic and benthic environments suggests intestinal damage is a key effect of microplastics; and that the toxicity ofmicroplastics is closely dependent on their size, rather than their composition.

TL;DR: A critical perspective on published studies of MP ingestion by aquatic biota is provided and there are significant mismatches between the types of MP most commonly found in the environment or reported in field studies and those used in laboratory experiments.

TL;DR: The sources of plastic particles in agroecosystems, the mechanisms, constraints and dynamic behaviour of plastic during aging on land, and the responses of soil organisms and plants at different levels of biological organisation to plastic particles of micro and nano-scale are discussed.

TL;DR: Investigation of abundance and distribution of plastic particles among soil aggregate fractions in four cropped areas and an established riparian forest buffer zone at Dian Lake, southwestern China shows that the abundance of aggregate-associated plastic fibers is significantly greater in the micro-aggregate than that in the macro-agg aggregate.

TL;DR: The results showed that macro- and micro- plastic residues affected both above-ground and below-ground parts of the wheat plant during both vegetative and reproductive growth and the type of plastic mulch films used had a strong effect on wheat growth.

TL;DR: It is hypothesized that the selection pressure for glyphosate-resistance in bacteria could lead to shifts in microbiome composition and increases in antibiotic resistance to clinically important antimicrobial agents, which would have an impact on plant, animal and human health.

TL;DR: The potential of Nature based solutions (NBSs) as a cost-effective long term solution for hydrological risks and land degradation is shown and these services directly feed into the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

TL;DR: This study is one of very few that determine microplastics down to the size of 1’μm, while MPs smaller than 10 μm were the most plentiful in both raw and treated water samples, accounting for up to 95%.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated microplastic pollution levels in surface waters and sediments from the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), which is the largest reservoir in China and is located across the Chongqing municipality and Hubei Province.

TL;DR: Results indicated that polystyrene MP could modify the gut microbiota composition and induce hepatic lipid disorder in mice; while the mouse is a common mammal model, the health risks of MP to animals should not be ignored.

TL;DR: Foams and fibers were the most abundant type in São João da Madeira, while fibers and fragments were themost abundant in Aguincheira and Estarreja in water and sediment samples, respectively.

TL;DR: Results show that the ADT model has the highest prediction capability for flash flood susceptibility assessment, followed by the NBT, the LMT, and the REPT, respectively.

TL;DR: This review highlights the apparent significance of Vibrio fischeri bioluminescence inhibition assay for ecotoxicological screening and evaluation of diverse chemical substances toxicity profile.

TL;DR: It was found that the use of biochar may help increase crop yields on polluted land, and thus reduce the amount of mineral fertilizer used in the field, and in order to maximize the benefits ofBiochar addition, farmers need to accept that the dosage rates of mineral fertilizers should be reduced.

TL;DR: This review concludes that 39 antibiotics have been detected in the aquatic environments of lakes in China and Quinolone antibiotics (QNs) pose the greatest risks.

TL;DR: While the authors did observe within-taxa negative effects for all four categories of responses, many of the effects summarized in the study were neutral, indicating that the effects of exposure to microplastics are highly variable across taxa.

TL;DR: The excellent reusability and great water stability indicated the potential application of this novel composite in the removal of TCS from aqueous solutions, and the adsorption kinetics were well fitted to the pseudo-second-order equation.

TL;DR: This review focuses on bioavailability mechanisms of POPs in terms of sorption, transport and microbial adaptation, which is particularly novel.

TL;DR: Evidence from the study reveals that political institutional quality plays a huge role in the social, governance and economic readiness to mitigate climate change and its impact, and structural adjustment in disaggregate and aggregate energy consumption, economic growth, and political institutionalquality play a critical role in environmental quality.

TL;DR: According to the health risk assessment results, the non-carcinogenic risks that human beings suffered from heavy metals were insignificant, however, the carcinogenic risks due to Ni and Cr exceeded the acceptable level.

TL;DR: A conceptual framework and possible mitigation measures to minimize health risks are highlighted and future research is needed to better understand sources, environmental behaviour, ecotoxicology, and human epidemiology.

TL;DR: The model exhibited excellent performance in representing the water quality in LakeTaihu Basin, especially when weights were fully considered, and could be used for rapid and low-cost water quality evaluation in Lake Taihu Basin.

TL;DR: There is growing evidence that P activators can promote the release of phosphate from soil and, hence, have potential for mitigating the impending global P crisis.

TL;DR: Taking advantage of a novel application of modeling framework and the most recent ground-level PM2.5 observations, the machine learning method showed higher predictive ability than previous studies.

TL;DR: This review emphasizes that using biochar as an organic amendment for sustainable and profitable use of salt-affected soils would not be practicable as long as low-cost methods for the production of biochar are not devised.

TL;DR: The results highlighted the widespread distribution of microplastics in sediments from the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea and provided useful information for evaluating the environmental risks of micro Plastics in China.

TL;DR: It is proposed for the first time that adherence is a novel way for animals to uptake microplastic beyond ingestion, and this new finding makes us rethink about the bioavailability, accumulation and toxicity of microplastics to aquatic animals.