Detangling past and modern zinc anthropogenic source contributions in an urbanized coastal river by combining elemental, isotope and speciation approaches.

The accumulation of trace metals in the environmental compartments of coastal rivers is a global and complex environmental issue, requiring multiple tools to constrain the various anthropogenic sources and biogeochemical processes affecting the water quality of these environments. The Valao fluvio-estuarine system (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) presents a challenging case of a coastal river contaminated by both modern and historical anthropogenic metal sources, located in the land and in the intra-estuary, continuously mixed by tidal cycles. This study employed a combination of spatial distribution analysis of trace metals including gadolinium (Gd), zinc (Zn) isotopic analyses, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to distinguish between these sources.

Towards the Improvement of Soil Salinity Mapping in a Data-Scarce Context Using Sentinel-2 Images in Machine-Learning Models.

Several recent studies have evidenced the relevance of machine-learning for soil salinity mapping using Sentinel-2 reflectance as input data and field soil salinity measurement (i.e., Electrical Conductivity-EC) as the target.

Fate of antimony contamination generated by road traffic - A focus on Sb geochemistry and speciation in stormwater ponds.

Although antimony (Sb) contamination has been documented in urban areas, knowledge gaps remain concerning the contributions of the different sources to the Sb urban biogeochemical cycle, including non-exhaust road traffic emissions, urban materials leaching/erosion and waste incineration. Additionally, details are lacking about Sb chemical forms involved in urban soils, sediments and water bodies. Here, with the aim to document the fate of metallic contaminants emitted through non-exhaust traffic emissions in urban aquatic systems, we studied trace element contamination, with a particular focus on Sb geochemistry, in three highway stormwater pond systems, standing as models of surface environments receiving road-water runoff.

Strong evidence for the continued contribution of lead deposited during the 20th century to the atmospheric environment in London of today.

Although leaded gasoline was banned at the end of the last century, lead (Pb) remains significantly enriched in airborne particles in large cities. The remobilization of historical Pb deposited in soils from atmospheric removal has been suggested as an important source providing evidence for the hypothetical long-term persistency of lead, and possibly other pollutants, in the urban environment. Here, we present data on Pb isotopic composition in airborne particles collected in London (2014 to 2018), which provide strong support that lead deposited via gasoline combustion still contributes significantly to the lead burden in present-day London.

Contrasting arsenic biogeochemical cycling in two Moroccan alkaline pit lakes.

Pit lakes resulting from the flooding of abandoned mines represent a valuable freshwater reserve. However, water contamination by toxic elements, including arsenic, compromises their use for freshwater supply. For a better management of these reserves, our aim was to gain insight into arsenic cycling in two Moroccan alkaline pit lakes.