Identification of possible sources for potentially toxic elements and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their spatially varying relationships in urban soils of Dublin, Ireland.

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) harm the ecosystem and human health, especially in urban areas. Identifying and understanding their potential sources and underlying interactions in urban soils are critical for informed management and risk assessment. This study investigated the potential sources and the spatially varying relationships between 9 PTEs and PAHs in the topsoil of Dublin by combining positive matrix factorisation (PMF) and geographically weighted regression (GWR).

In-Silico Approaches for the Screening and Discovery of Broad-Spectrum Marine Natural Product Antiviral Agents Against Coronaviruses.

The urgent need for SARS-CoV-2 controls has led to a reassessment of approaches to identify and develop natural product inhibitors of zoonotic, highly virulent, and rapidly emerging viruses. There are yet no clinically approved broad-spectrum antivirals available for beta-coronaviruses. Discovery pipelines for pan-virus medications against a broad range of betacoronaviruses are therefore a priority.

Contemporary Approaches to the Discovery and Development of Broad-Spectrum Natural Product Prototypes for the Control of Coronaviruses.

The pressing need for SARS-CoV-2 controls has led to a reassessment of strategies to identify and develop natural product inhibitors of zoonotic, highly virulent, and rapidly emerging viruses. This review article addresses how contemporary approaches involving computational chemistry, natural product (NP) and protein databases, and mass spectrometry (MS) derived target-ligand interaction analysis can be utilized to expedite the interrogation of NP structures while minimizing the time and expense of extraction, purification, and screening in BioSafety Laboratories (BSL)3 laboratories. The unparalleled structural diversity and complexity of NPs is an extraordinary resource for the discovery and development of broad-spectrum inhibitors of viral genera, including , which contains MERS, SARS, SARS-CoV-2, and the common cold.

Niche partitioning by photosynthetic plankton as a driver of CO-fixation across the oligotrophic South Pacific Subtropical Ocean.

Oligotrophic ocean gyre ecosystems may be expanding due to rising global temperatures [1-5]. Models predicting carbon flow through these changing ecosystems require accurate descriptions of phytoplankton communities and their metabolic activities [6]. We therefore measured distributions and activities of cyanobacteria and small photosynthetic eukaryotes throughout the euphotic zone on a zonal transect through the South Pacific Ocean, focusing on the ultraoligotrophic waters of the South Pacific Gyre (SPG).

Changing atmospheric acidity as a modulator of nutrient deposition and ocean biogeochemistry.

Anthropogenic emissions to the atmosphere have increased the flux of nutrients, especially nitrogen, to the ocean, but they have also altered the acidity of aerosol, cloud water, and precipitation over much of the marine atmosphere. For nitrogen, acidity-driven changes in chemical speciation result in altered partitioning between the gas and particulate phases that subsequently affect long-range transport. Other important nutrients, notably iron and phosphorus, are affected, because their soluble fractions increase upon exposure to acidic environments during atmospheric transport.

Discovering hidden spatial patterns and their associations with controlling factors for potentially toxic elements in topsoil using hot spot analysis and K-means clustering analysis.

The understanding of sources and controlling factors of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in soils plays an important role in the improvement of environmental management. With the rapid growth of data volume, effective methods are required for data analytics for the large geochemical data sets. In recent years, spatial machine learning technologies have been proven to have the potential to reveal hidden spatial patterns in order to extract geochemical information.

A survey of arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and lead residues in seafood (fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods) from the south-eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Seafood is capable of bioaccumulating heavy metals (HM), making it a potentially major dietary source of HM for humans. Presently, little data exists on seafood from the eastern-most boundary of the Mediterranean Sea. This study aims to provide exposure insight of the Israeli population to HM through the consumption of locally caught seafood by assessing the levels of arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and lead in raw tissues of seafood.

Elucidating Biodiversity Shifts in Ballast Water Tanks during a Cross-Latitudinal Transfer: Complementary Insights from Molecular Analyses.

In this study, the evolution of ballast water (BW) assemblages across different trophic levels was characterized over a 21 day cross-latitudinal vessel transit using a combination of molecular methods. Triplicate BW samples were collected every second day and size-fractionated (<2.7, 10, >50 μm).

Tracing sources of natural organic matter, trihalomethanes and metals in groundwater from a karst region.

Groundwater offers an important source for drinking water around the world; however, groundwater quality is under increasing pressure and is particularly vulnerable in karst areas. Total organic carbon (TOC) is significantly related to groundwater quality and when not removed by water treatment processes can give rise to the formation of disinfection by-products trihalomethanes (THMs) above the level of compliance. This study investigated the source of organic matter giving rise to the THM exceedances in a groundwater supply in a karst area.

Global sea-surface iodide observations, 1967-2018.

The marine iodine cycle has significant impacts on air quality and atmospheric chemistry. Specifically, the reaction of iodide with ozone in the top few micrometres of the surface ocean is an important sink for tropospheric ozone (a pollutant gas) and the dominant source of reactive iodine to the atmosphere. Sea surface iodide parameterisations are now being implemented in air quality models, but these are currently a major source of uncertainty.

Microplastic Ingestion by Gelatinous Zooplankton May Lower Efficiency of the Biological Pump.

The impacts of microplastics on some individual organisms have been well studied but what is less clear is what impacts microplastics have on wider ecosystem processes. Using salps as model organisms, we studied the effect of microplastic ingestion on the downward flux of high-density particulate organic matter in the form of salp faecal pellets. While to date most microplastic studies used virgin microplastics at unrealistic environmental concentrations here we exposed Salpa fusiformis to fractured and UV exposed polyethylene and polystyrene microplastics possessing a biofilm.

HS events in the Peruvian oxygen minimum zone facilitate enhanced dissolved Fe concentrations.

Dissolved iron (DFe) concentrations in oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) of Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems are enhanced as a result of high supply rates from anoxic sediments. However, pronounced variations in DFe concentrations in anoxic coastal waters of the Peruvian OMZ indicate that there are factors in addition to dissolved oxygen concentrations (O) that control Fe cycling. Our study demonstrates that sediment-derived reduced Fe (Fe(II)) forms the main DFe fraction in the anoxic/euxinic water column off Peru, which is responsible for DFe accumulations of up to 200 nmol L.

National scale assessment of total trihalomethanes in Irish drinking water.

Ireland reported the highest non-compliance with respect to total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) in drinking water across the 27 European Union Member States for the year 2010. We carried out a GIS-based investigation of the links between geographical parameters and catchment land-uses with TTHMs concentrations in Irish drinking water. A high risk catchment map was created using peat presence, rainfall (>1400 mm) and slope (<5%) and overlain with a map comprising the national dataset of routinely monitored TTHM concentrations.

Differences in the sensitivity to Cu and ligand production of coastal vs offshore strains of Emiliania huxleyi.

Copper is an essential trace metal for different physiological processes in phytoplankton, being either a limiting or toxic element depending on its bioavailability, which may induce local physiological adaptations. Atmospheric Cu deposition to the oceans can negatively impact phytoplankton growth, with the most Cu-sensitive phytoplankton exhibiting differences based on coastal vs oceanic origin. The goal of this work was to analyze sensitivity to Cu toxicity of the cosmopolitan marine calcifying phytoplankton, Emiliania huxleyi, exploring what factors determine intraspecific variability in sensitivity.

Facets of diazotrophy in the oxygen minimum zone waters off Peru.

Nitrogen fixation, the biological reduction of dinitrogen gas (N2) to ammonium (NH4(+)), is quantitatively the most important external source of new nitrogen (N) to the open ocean. Classically, the ecological niche of oceanic N2 fixers (diazotrophs) is ascribed to tropical oligotrophic surface waters, often depleted in fixed N, with a diazotrophic community dominated by cyanobacteria. Although this applies for large areas of the ocean, biogeochemical models and phylogenetic studies suggest that the oceanic diazotrophic niche may be much broader than previously considered, resulting in major implications for the global N-budget.

Reactivity of inorganic Mn and Mn desferrioxamine B with O2, O2(-), and H2O2 in seawater.

Manganese (Mn) is a required element for oceanic phytoplankton as it plays a critical role in photosynthesis, through its unique redox chemistry, as the active site in photosystem II, and in enzymes that act as defenses against reactive oxygen species (ROS), most notably for protection against superoxide (O2(-)), through the action of superoxide dismutase (SOD), and against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) via peroxidases and catalases. The distribution and redox speciation of Mn in the ocean is also apparently controlled by reactions with ROS. Here we examine the connections between ROS and dissolved Mn species in the upper ocean using field and laboratory experimental data.

Pathways of superoxide (O2(-)) decay in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic.

Superoxide (O2(-): IUPAC name dioxide (•1-)) is an important transient reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the ocean formed as an intermediate in the redox transformation of oxygen (O2) into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and vice versa. This highly reactive and very short-lived radical anion can be produced both via photochemical and biological processes in the ocean. In this paper we examine the decomposition rate of O2(-) throughout the water column, using new data collected in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic (ETNA) Ocean.

Deep carbon export from a Southern Ocean iron-fertilized diatom bloom.

Fertilization of the ocean by adding iron compounds has induced diatom-dominated phytoplankton blooms accompanied by considerable carbon dioxide drawdown in the ocean surface layer. However, because the fate of bloom biomass could not be adequately resolved in these experiments, the timescales of carbon sequestration from the atmosphere are uncertain. Here we report the results of a five-week experiment carried out in the closed core of a vertically coherent, mesoscale eddy of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, during which we tracked sinking particles from the surface to the deep-sea floor.

Iron organic speciation determination in rainwater using cathodic stripping voltammetry.

A sensitive method using Competitive Ligand Exchange-Adsorptive Cathodic Stripping Voltammetry (CLE-ACSV) has been developed to determine for the first time iron (Fe) organic speciation in rainwater over the typical natural range of pH. We have adapted techniques previously developed in other natural waters to rainwater samples, using the competing ligand 1-nitroso-2-naphthol (NN). The blank was equal to 0.

The importance of kinetics and redox in the biogeochemical cycling of iron in the surface ocean.

It is now well established that Iron (Fe) is a limiting element in many regions of the open ocean. Our current understanding of the key processes which control iron distribution in the open ocean have been largely based on thermodynamic measurements performed under the assumption of equilibrium conditions. Using this equilibrium approach, researchers have been able to detect and quantify organic complexing ligands in seawater and examine their role in increasing the overall solubility of iron.

Rapid determination of picomolar titanium in seawater with catalytic cathodic stripping voltammetry.

Titanium (Ti) is present as a trace element in seawater at extremely low concentrations (5-350 pM, where 1 pM = 10(-12) mol L(-1)) throughout the water column. Presently, little is known about the marine biogeochemistry of Ti and there is a distinct lack of oceanic measurements of Ti , because of the combined difficulties of trace-metal clean sampling for an element at such low levels and the lack of a suitable shipboard method of analysis. Here, a new cathodic stripping voltammetry procedure is presented for the rapid determination of Ti at pM concentrations in seawater that is capable of being used directly at sea.

Superoxide decay kinetics in the southern ocean.

Measurements of superoxide (O(2)(-)) reaction kinetics were made during a transect with the research icebreaker Polarstern (ANT24-3) in the Antarctic through the Drake Passage in austral autumn 2008. Our sampling strategy was designed to investigate the sinks of superoxide in Polar waters; principally through reactions with dissolved organic matter (DOM) or metals (copper and iron). We modified an existing chemiluminescence flow injection system using methyl Cypridina luciferin analog (MCLA) for the detection of O(2)(-) and added O(2)(-) using KO(2) as the source.

A high precision spectrophotometric method for on-line shipboard seawater pH measurements: the automated marine pH sensor (AMpS).

Measurement strategies for understanding the oceanic CO(2) (carbon dioxide) system are moving towards in situ and ship of opportunity sampling techniques. Automated instrumentation with high accuracy and sampling frequencies will enable a greater understanding of the fluxes of marine carbon and lead to a more reliable constrain on the calculated uptake of anthropogenic CO(2) by the oceans. This paper describes the automated marine pH sensor (AMpS); new instrumentation and methodology for the determination of seawater pH using dual spectrophotometric measurements of sulfonephthalein indicator in a semi-continuous seawater stream.

Luminescent whole-cell cyanobacterial bioreporter for measuring Fe availability in diverse marine environments.

A Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7002 Fe bioreporter was constructed containing the isiAB promoter fused to the Vibrio harveyi luxAB genes. Bioreporter luminescence was characterized with respect to the free ferric ion concentration in trace metal-buffered synthetic medium.