Meanwhile, TPhP did not significantly disturb the hormone homeostasis (E2/T) and vitellogenin (Vtg) content in fish, but the presence of NPS increased the E2/T ratio and Vtg content in male fish, while slightly decreased those in female fish, which implying that effects of PS was sex-dependent. As a result, the egg production, the fertilization rate and hatchability of eggs significantly reduced after combined TPhP+PS exposure, demonstrating that co-occurrence of TPhP and PS, especially NPS, could greatly impaired the reproductive performance of zebrafish.Shifting to plant-based and low-carbon diets is a key measure for climate change mitigation. In this regard, national and local governments are setting goals and actions to tackle this issue. The municipality of Barcelona has set an intervention for the academic year 2020-21 introducing low-carbon meals in public schools. This study assesses the environmental and nutritional benefits of this intervention by applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, with an energy and nutritional functional unit; and combined it with the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus approach, by considering three WEF resources-based impacts (Blue Water Footprint (BWF), Primary Energy Demand (PED) and Land Use (LU)) and the Global Warming Potential (GWP). The transition to a low-carbon meal would reduce between 46 and 60% the environmental impacts. These benefits could even be higher when extra interventions within the school boundaries are applied. More research in behavioural change is needed in order to evaluate both the acceptance of the new menus by scholars and the adaptation of the school kitchen staff to the new menu. Finally, it is suggested to monitor the environmental and nutritional changes of the introduction of low-carbon meals within the school menus in an integrated way.Biomass is a type of renewable and sustainable resource that can be used to produce various fuels, chemicals, and materials. Nitrogen (N) in biomass such as microalgae should be reduced if it is used to produce fuels, while the retention of N is favorable if the biomass is processed to yield chemicals or materials with N-containing functional groups. The engineering of the removal and retention of N in hydrochar during hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of biomass rich in protein is a research hot spot in the past decade. However, the N transformation during HTC has not yet been fully understood. In order to mediate the migration and transformation of N in hydrochar, the present review overviewed i) the characteristics of hydrochar and the original feedstock, ii) the possible N transformation behavior and mechanisms, and iii) the effect of factors such as feedstock and pyrolysis parameters such as temperature on hydrochar N. The high temperature and high protein content promote the dehydration, decarboxylation, and deamination of biomass to produce hydrochar solid fuel with reduced N content, while the Millard and Mannich reactions for lignocellulosic biomass rich in carbohydrate (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) at medium temperatures (e.g., 180-240 °C) significantly promote the enrichment of N in hydrochar. The prediction models can be built based on properties of biomass and the processing parameters for the estimation of the yield and the content of N in hydrochar.Antimicrobial resistance (AR) represents a global threat in human and veterinary medicine. In that regard, AR proliferation and dissemination in agricultural soils after manure application raises concerns on the enrichment of endogenous soil bacterial population with allochthonous antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Natural resilience of agricultural soils and background concentrations of ARGs play key roles in the mitigation of AR propagation in natural environments. In the present study, we carried out a longitudinal sampling campaign for two crop vegetation periods to monitor spatial and temporal changes in the abundance of seven clinically relevant ARGs (sul1, ermB, vanA, aph(3')-IIa, aph(3')-IIIa, blaTEM-1 and tet(W)) and ribosomal 16S RNA. The absolute and relative abundances of the selected ARGs were quantified in total community DNA extracted from agricultural (manured and non-manured) and forest soils, fresh pig faeces and manure slurry. We observed that ARG concentrations return to background levels after manure-induced exposure within a crop growing season, highlighting the resilience capacity of soil. Naturally occurring high background concentrations of ARGs can be found in forest soil in due distance under low anthropogenic influences. It was observed that pesticide application increases the concentrations of three out of seven ARGs tested (ermB, aph(3')-IIIa and tet(W)). Moreover, we noticed that the absolute abundances of sul1, vanA, ermB and blaTEM-1 resistance genes show an increase by 100- to 10,000- fold, from maturation of fresh pig faeces to manure. Outcomes of our study suggest that agricultural soil environments show a strong capacity to alleviate externally induced disturbances in endogenous ARG concentrations. Naturally occurring high concentrations of ARGs are present also in low human impacted environments represented by the indigenous resistome.The seabed constitutes a global sink for plastic debris, where they can remain for centuries. Biodegradable plastics offer the advantage of having less persistence in the environment than conventional ones. The seabed is responsible for key ecosystem functions related to the cycling of elements by decomposing the labile fraction of organic matter and fueling primary production, while storing the most recalcitrant part of this organic matter and limiting CO2 emissions. Although plastics are expected to affect these processes, knowledge on this matter is scarce. In controlled microcosms, we show that biodegradable plastics can stimulate the decomposition of marine-buried carbon and reduce the release of inorganic nitrogen. We found that conventional and biodegradable plastics promoted anaerobic sediment metabolic pathways. Biodegradable plastics produced a two-fold CO2 release to the water column, which suggests the decomposition of not only plastics, but also of buried organic carbon. The stimulation of sediment metabolism could be due to excessive carbon consumption by bacteria that derives from a rise in the carbonnitrogen ratio. Accordingly, the NH4+ flux to the water column lowered. As NOx fluxes also lowered, biodegradable plastics might promote nitrification-denitrification coupling. If biodegradable plastics become a major component of marine pollution, then sediment biogeochemical cycles might be strongly influenced, which could affect the carbon sequestration of coastal ecosystems and compromise their mitigation capacity against climate change.Soil salinization and nutrient deficiency have emerged as the major factors negatively impacting soil quality and primary productivity in the coastal saline-alkali soil of the Yellow River Delta. Biochar has been proposed as an efficient strategy for promoting plant growth and restoring degraded saline-alkali soil. However, knowledge is inadequate regarding the effects of adding Spartina alterniflora-derived biochar alone or in combination with effective microorganisms (EM) on the growth of Sesbania cannabina and soil quality in saline-alkali soil. To enhance this knowledge, a pot experiment with different EM treatments (without EM addition, EM-; with EM addition, EM+) and a gradient of biochar treatments (0%, B0; 0.5%, B1; 1.5%, B2; and 3%, B3; biochar weight/soil weight) was conducted. Our results showed that biochar addition alone and in combination with EM significantly increased seed germination, plant height, stem diameter, total biomass and plant nutrient uptake of S. cannabina. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/Belinostat.html Biochar addition, EM adve strategy to ameliorate soil salinity, improve soil quality and promote plant productivity.Production of struvite (MgNH4PO4·6H2O) from waste streams is increasingly implemented to recover phosphorus (P), which is listed as a critical raw material in the European Union (EU). To facilitate EU-wide trade of P-containing secondary raw materials such as struvite, the EU issued a revised fertilizer regulation in 2019. A comprehensive overview of the supply of struvite and its quality is presently missing. This study aimed i) to determine the current EU struvite production volumes, ii) to evaluate all legislated physicochemical characteristics and pathogen content of European struvite against newly set regulatory limits, and iii) to compare not-regulated struvite characteristics. It is estimated that in 2020, between 990 and 1250 ton P are recovered as struvite in the EU. Struvite from 24 European production plants, accounting for 30% of the 80 struvite installations worldwide was sampled. Three samples failed the physicochemical legal limits; one had a P content of 2 mm). A uniform soil-plant P-availability pattern of 3.5-6.5 mg P/L soil/d over a 28 days sampling period was observed. No differences for plant biomass yield were observed. In conclusion, the results highlight the suitability of most struvite to enter the EU fertilizer market.The rupture of Fundão Dam is considered one of the largest environmental disasters in Brazilian history and one of the largest in the world involving tailings dams. The present study analyzed the changes in metal concentrations in the dissolved, suspended particulate matter (SPM) and sediment in the period just after (15 days) and six months after the dam rupture, together with the biological and cytogenotoxic effects, from the collapse site until the Doce River mouth in the Atlantic Ocean. After the dam rupture, the tailings were mainly transported as SPM. After six months, with the deposition, there was a decrease in metal concentrations in dissolved and SPM and increased levels were observed in the sediment. Cr, Ni, Cd and Hg levels in sediment were higher than the threshold effects level (TEL/NOAA), especially six months after the dam rupture. The water induced immediate negative biological effects at different levels of the trophic chain, together with Al, Fe, Mn and Zn accumulation in fish muscle. Both water and sediment also showed cytotoxic, genotoxic and mutagenic effects. These data demonstrate the importance of long-term monitoring with abiotic and biotic parameters to clarify the impacts of mining tailings and can help to direct future monitoring programs.The microbiome-gut-brain-axis is a complex phenomenon spanning several dynamic systems in the body which can be parsed at a molecular, cellular, physiological and ecological level. A growing body of evidence indicates that this axis is particularly sensitive to the effects of stress and that it may be relevant to stress resilience and susceptibility. Although stress-induced changes in the composition of the microbiome have been reported, the degree of compositional change over time, which we define as volatility, has not been the subject of in-depth scrutiny. Using a chronic psychosocial stress paradigm in male mice, we report that the volatility of the microbiome significantly correlated with several readouts of the stress response, including behaviour and corticosterone response. We then validated these findings in a second independent group of stressed mice. Additionally, we assessed the relationship between volatility and stress parameters in a cohort of health volunteers who were undergoing academic exams and report similar observations.