Metals and metalloids pollution levels, partitioning, and sources in the environmental compartments of a small urban catchment in Moscow megacity.

This study examines the contamination levels and sources of 32 metals and metalloids (MMs) in environmental compartments (roadside soil, road dust, and river suspended sediments) of a small urbanized river catchment located in Moscow megacity. MMs partitioning between particle size fractions (PM, PM, and PM) was analyzed by ICP-MS and ICP-AES methods. The pollution level of particle size fractions with MMs decreases in the following series: road dust > suspended sediments > soils.

Drivers and extent of surface water occurrence in the Selenga River Delta, Russia.

Study Region: Selenga River Delta (SRD), Russia.

Study Focus: How is water occurrence changing in the SRD, and what are the hydroclimatic drivers behind these changes? The presence of water on the surface in river deltas is governed by land use, geomorphology, and the flux of water to and from the Delta. We trained an accurate image classification of the Landsat satellite imagery during the last 33 years to quantify surface water occurrence and its changes in the SRD.

Dam and reservoir removal projects: a mix of social-ecological trends and cost-cutting attitudes.

The removal of dams and reservoirs may seem to be an unforeseen and sometimes controversial step in water management. The removal of barriers may be different for each country or region, as each differs greatly in terms of politics, economy and social and cultural awareness. This paper addresses the complex problem of removing dams on rivers and their connected reservoirs.

Estimating the collapse of aggregated fine soil structure in a mountainous forested catchment.

This paper describes the relationship of forest soil dryness and antecedent rainfall with suspended sediment (SS) yield due to extreme rainfall events and how this relationship affects the survival of forest plants. Several phenomena contribute to this relationship: increasing evaporation (amount of water vapour discharged from soil) due to increasing air temperature, decreasing moisture content in the soil, the collapse of aggregates of fine soil particles, and the resulting effects on forest plants. To clarify the relationships among climate variation, the collapse of soil particle aggregates, and rainfall-runoff processes, a numerical model was developed to reproduce such aggregate collapse in detail.

Gold mining impact on riverine heavy metal transport in a sparsely monitored region: the upper Lake Baikal Basin case.

Mining and ore excavation can cause the acidification and heavy metal pollution of downstream water systems. It can be difficult to assess the load contributions from individual mining areas, which is commonly required for environmental impact assessments. In the current study, we quantified the net impact of the unmonitored mining activities in the Zaamar Goldfield (Mongolia) on heavy metal transport in the downstream Tuul River-Selenga River-Lake Baikal water systems.

Structure of the Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III epsilon-HOT proofreading complex.

The epsilon subunit of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III possesses 3'-exonucleolytic proofreading activity. Within the Pol III core, epsilon is tightly bound between the alpha subunit (DNA polymerase) and subunit. Here, we present the crystal structure of epsilon in complex with HOT, the bacteriophage P1-encoded homolog of , at 2.