Vertical distribution of microplastics in an agricultural soil after long-term treatment with sewage sludge and mineral fertiliser.

Sewage sludge applications release contaminants to agricultural soils, such as potentially toxic metals and microplastics (MPs). However, factors determining the subsequent mobility of MPs in long-term field conditions are poorly understood. This study aimed to understand the vertical distribution of MPs in soils amended with sewage sludge in comparison to conventional mineral fertiliser for 24 years.

Immobilizing arsenic in contaminated anoxic aquifer sediment using sulfidated and uncoated zero-valent iron (ZVI).

Arsenic (As) is carcinogenic and of major concern in groundwater. We collected sediment material from a contaminated anoxic aquifer in Sweden and investigated the immobilization of As by four commercial zero-valent iron (ZVI) particles. Solid-phase As and Fe speciation was assessed using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and solution-phase As speciation using chromatographic separation.

Toxicokinetics of Ag from AgS NP exposure in Tenebrio molitor and Porcellio scaber: Comparing single-species tests to indoor mesocosm experiments.

Determining the potential for accumulation of Ag from AgS NPs as an environmentally relevant form of AgNPs in different terrestrial organisms is an essential component of a realistic risk assessment of AgNP emissions to soils. The objectives of this study were first to determine the uptake kinetics of Ag in mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) and woodlice (Porcellio scaber) exposed to AgS NPs in a mesocosm test, and second, to check if the obtained toxicokinetics could be predicted by single-species bioaccumulation tests. In the mesocosms, mealworms and woodlice were exposed together with plants and earthworms in soil columns spiked with 10 μg Ag g dry soil as AgS NPs or AgNO.

Versailles project on advanced materials and standards (VAMAS) interlaboratory study on measuring the number concentration of colloidal gold nanoparticles.

We describe the outcome of a large international interlaboratory study of the measurement of particle number concentration of colloidal nanoparticles, project 10 of the technical working area 34, "Nanoparticle Populations" of the Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards (VAMAS). A total of 50 laboratories delivered results for the number concentration of 30 nm gold colloidal nanoparticles measured using particle tracking analysis (PTA), single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) light spectroscopy, centrifugal liquid sedimentation (CLS) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The study provides quantitative data to evaluate the repeatability of these methods and their reproducibility in the measurement of number concentration of model nanoparticle systems following a common measurement protocol.

Nanoplastic Transport in Soil via Bioturbation by .

Plastic pollution is increasingly perceived as an emerging threat to terrestrial environments, but the spatial and temporal dimension of plastic exposure in soils is poorly understood. Bioturbation displaces microplastics (>1 μm) in soils and likely also nanoplastics (<1 μm), but empirical evidence is lacking. We used a combination of methods that allowed us to not only quantify but to also understand the mechanisms of biologically driven transport of nanoplastics in microcosms with the deep-burrowing earthworm .