Wildfires have become larger and more severe in recent decades. Fire retardant is one of the most common wildfire response tools to protect against loss of life and property. Previous studies have documented various effects of fire retardant, which commonly contains chemicals used in fertilizers, on plant and invertebrate community composition. This mesocosm study investigated the effects of fire retardant on water quality and plant and invertebrate communities in California vernal pools. This study found that fire retardant caused water quality conditions to shift from oligotrophic to eutrophic with strong correlations between fire retardant and phosphates, nitrates, conductivity, and chlorophyll-a. Algal cover increased with added fire-retardant concentration. Shifts in invertebrate and plant communities occurred even at relatively low fire-retardant concentrations. Abundance of passive dispersers (crustaceans) peaked at medium concentrations of fire retardant, but time also influenced the relationship between fire retardant and passive invertebrate abundance. Active disperser (insects) abundance increased with increasing fire-retardant concentration and invertebrate richness peaked at medium concentrations. This study informs land managers, government agencies, and the public of the side-effects of fire-retardant use on populations, communities, and water quality of freshwater ecosystems.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10646-025-02855-2 | DOI Listing |
Ecotoxicology
January 2025
Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, Sacramento, CA, 95819, USA.
Wildfires have become larger and more severe in recent decades. Fire retardant is one of the most common wildfire response tools to protect against loss of life and property. Previous studies have documented various effects of fire retardant, which commonly contains chemicals used in fertilizers, on plant and invertebrate community composition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
January 2025
Institute of Organic Contaminant Control and Soil Remediation, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. Electronic address:
Hundreds of new flame retardants (NFRs) are widely used, causing environmental pollution and threating human health. In this study, based on the interaction of NFRs and human serum albumin (HSA), we assessed the differences in potential human accumulation of 8 NFRs including 1,2-Dibromo-4-(1,2-dibromoethyl)cyclohexane (TBECH), tetrabromobisphenol A bis(dibromopropyl ether) (TBBPA-DBPE), 2,4,6-tribromophenol (TBP), pentabromophenol (PBP), tri-n-butyl phosphate (TnBP), triphenyl phosphate (TPP), Tri(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP), and Tri(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCP). All NFRs could bind to HSA and cause slight damage to its structure, suggesting their potential human accumulation ability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Pollut
January 2025
Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, Nanjing, 210042, China; Key Laboratory of Pesticide Environmental Assessment and Pollution Control, Ministry of Ecology and Environmental of China, Nanjing, 210042, China. Electronic address:
Decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) is one of the most extensively used novel brominated flame retardants, and it has been frequently detected in the global environment. Although organisms encounter various pollutants through the intestine, the toxicity effects of DBDPE exposure on the intestine and the potential mechanisms remain unclear. Here, by morphological observation, histopathology, high-throughput sequencing, and transcriptomics methods, we evaluated the effects of environmental (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Mater
January 2025
Department of Chemistry, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, Institute of Biomimetic Materials & Chemistry, Anhui Engineering Laboratory of Biomimetic Materials, Division of Nanomaterials & Chemistry, Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China.
With increasing concern about the environmental pollution of petrochemical plastics, people are constantly exploring environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative materials. Compared with petrochemical materials, cellulose has overwhelming superiority in terms of mechanical properties, thermal properties, cost, and biodegradability. However, the flammability of cellulose hinders its practical application to a certain extent, so improving the fire-retardant properties of cellulose nanofiber-based materials has become a research focus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Genomics
January 2025
Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science and Technology, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, 266061, China.
Background: Tris (2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP), a widely used flame retardant, is widespread in the environment and potentially harmful to organisms. However, the specific mechanisms of TCEP-induced neurological and reproductive toxicity in fish are largely unknown. Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) is cultivated on a large scale, and the emergence of pollutants with endocrine disrupting effects seriously affects its economic benefits.
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