Phenology of the transcriptome coincides with the physiology of double-crested cormorant embryonic development.

The rigorous timing of the dynamic transcriptome within the embryo has to be well orchestrated for normal development. Identifying the phenology of the transcriptome along with the physiology of embryonic development in birds may suggest periods of increased sensitivity to contaminant exposure depending on the contaminant's mechanism of action. Double-crested cormorants (Nannopterum auritum, formerly Phalacrocorax auritus) are commonly used in ecotoxicological studies, but relatively little is known about their functional transcriptome profile in early development.

Stressor-response functions as a generalizable model for context dependence.

Defining the context dependence of ecological states or processes is a fundamental goal of ecology. Stressor-response functions are the quantitative representation of context dependence, where the context (environmental contingency) is defined by location on the stressor (x) axis, and represents a unifying concept in biological science.

A Rapid Targeted Gene Inactivation Approach in Sulfolobus islandicus.

Homologous recombination-based gene targeting is a powerful and classic reverse genetics approach to precisely elucidate in vivo gene functions in the organisms across all three domains of life. Gene function studies in Archaea, particularly for those flourishing in inhospitable natural environments that are anaerobic, usually hot, and acidic, have been a great challenge; however, this situation was recently overturned with the increasing availability of genetic manipulation systems in several cultivable archaeal species. In the present chapter, we describe a detailed procedure to rapidly generate gene disruption mutants in the hyperthermophilic crenarchaeon Sulfolobus islandicus via a recently developed Microhomology-Mediated Gene Inactivation (MMGI) approach.

Rebuilding fish biomass for the world's marine ecoregions under climate change.

Rebuilding overexploited marine populations is an important step to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 14-Life Below Water. Mitigating major human pressures is required to achieve rebuilding goals. Climate change is one such key pressure, impacting fish and invertebrate populations by changing their biomass and biogeography.

Tropical volcanoes synchronize eastern Canada with Northern Hemisphere millennial temperature variability.

Although global and Northern Hemisphere temperature reconstructions are coherent with climate model simulations over the last millennium, reconstructed temperatures tend to diverge from simulations at smaller spatial scales. Yet, it remains unclear to what extent these regional peculiarities reflect region-specific internal climate variability or inadequate proxy coverage and quality. Here, we present a high-quality, millennial-long summer temperature reconstruction for northeastern North America, based on maximum latewood density, the most temperature-sensitive tree-ring proxy.

Fungal succession on the decomposition of three plant species from a Brazilian mangrove.

Leaf decomposition is the primary process in release of nutrients in the dynamic mangrove habitat, supporting the ecosystem food webs. On most environments, fungi are an essential part of this process. However, due to the peculiarities of mangrove forests, this group is currently neglected.

Combined effects of seawater intrusion and nitrate contamination on groundwater in coastal agricultural areas: A case from the Plain of the El-Nil River (North-Eastern Algeria).

This study focuses on coastal aquifers subject to uncontrolled land use development by investigating the combined effects of seawater intrusion and nitrate contamination. The research is undertaken in a Mediterranean coastal agricultural area (Plain of the El-Nil River, Algeria), where water resources are heavily impacted by anthropogenic activities. A multi-tracer approach, integrating hydrogeochemical and isotopic tracers (δH, δO, δN and δO), is combined with a hydrochemical facies evolution diagram, and a Bayesian isotope mixing model (MixSIAR) to assess seawater contamination with its inland intrusion, and distinguish the nitrate sources and their apportionment.

Thermo-chemo-sonic pretreatment of lignocellulosic waste: Evaluating anaerobic biodegradability and environmental impacts.

In the present study, yard waste was pretreated by thermo-chemo-sonic pretreatment prior to anaerobic digestion to improve its anaerobic biodegradability. First, the pretreatment conditions were optimized using Box-Behnken design based response surface methodology for the maximum organic matter solubilisation. Then, the possible mechanism of delignification by thermo-chemo-sonic pretreatment was discussed.

Constrained groupwise additive index models.

In environmental epidemiology, there is wide interest in creating and using comprehensive indices that can summarize information from different environmental exposures while retaining strong predictive power on a target health outcome. In this context, the present article proposes a model called the constrained groupwise additive index model (CGAIM) to create easy-to-interpret indices predictive of a response variable, from a potentially large list of variables. The CGAIM considers groups of predictors that naturally belong together to yield meaningful indices.

Statistically based soil-climate exposure scenarios for aquatic pesticide fate modeling and exposure assessment in the Pampa Region of Argentina.

Although pesticides are used intensively in Argentina's Pampa region, the possibility of performing an environmental risk assessment (ERA) remains limited due to the absence of readily available databases to run pesticide fate models and the lack of standardized realistic worst-case scenarios. The aim of the present study was to further advance capacities for performing probabilistic ERAs in the Pampa region by dividing and parameterizing the region into functional soil-climate mapping units (SCU) and defining statistically based, worst-case soil-climate exposure scenarios. Results obtained demonstrate that the SCU selected for a specific modeling exercise should depend on the dissociation constant (K ) of the pesticide evaluated and whether short- or long-term pesticide fate modeling and risk assessment are needed.

Investigating the mechanisms of dissolved organic matter protection against copper toxicity in fish of Amazon's black waters.

We investigated how natural dissolved organic matter (DOM) of the Rio Negro (Amazon) affects acute copper (Cu) toxicity to local fish: the cardinal tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi) and the dwarf cichlid (Apistogramma agassizii). It is established that Cu complexation with DOM decreases Cu bioavailability (and thus toxicity) to aquatic organisms, as conceptualized by the Biotic Ligand Model (BLM). However, we also know that Rio Negro's DOM can interact with fish gills and have a beneficial effect on Na homeostasis, the main target of acute Cu toxicity in freshwater animals.

Real-time model predictive and rule-based control with green infrastructures to reduce combined sewer overflows.

The impact of integrating large-scale distribution of green infrastructures (GIs) with different real-time control strategies on combined sewer overflows (CSOs) is assessed for the southern area of the City of Montreal's combined sewer system (Canada). An iterative process involving a synthetic design rainfall event and model predictive control (MPC) of the sewer system is developed to distribute GIs according to cost-efficiency and spatial analysis criteria. The distributed GIs are alternatively integrated with static, rule-based control (RBC) and MPC, for which model simulations are performed for a two-month period.

Considering Fish as Recipients of Ecosystem Services Provides a Framework to Formally Link Baseline, Development, and Post-operational Monitoring Programs and Improve Aquatic Impact Assessments for Large Scale Developments.

In most countries, major development projects must satisfy an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process that considers positive and negative aspects to determine if it meets environmental standards and appropriately mitigates or offsets negative impacts on the values being considered. The benefits of before-after-control-impact monitoring designs have been widely known for more than 30 years, but most development assessments fail to effectively link pre- and post-development monitoring in a meaningful way. Fish are a common component of EIA evaluation for both socioeconomic and scientific reasons.

A comparative life cycle assessment of different pyrolysis-pretreatment pathways of wood biomass for levoglucosan production.

In order to identify the most environmental-friendly pretreatment for pyrolsis of wood residue to levoglucosan (LG), for the first time a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out for hot water treatment (HWT), torrefaction, acid pretreatment (AP) and salt pretreatment (SP) pathways. Since LG production can facilitate both resource recovery (RR) and wood residue handling (WRH), two different functional units (FUs), i.e.

New insights in copper handling strategies in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under low-iron condition.

Copper (Cu) is a redox-active transition element critical to various metabolic processes. These functions are accomplished in tandem with Cu-binding ligands, mainly proteins. The main goal of this work was to understand the mechanisms that govern the intracellular fate of Cu in the freshwater green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and more specifically to understand the mechanisms underlying Cu detoxification by algal cells in low-Fe conditions.

Foam injection for enhanced recovery of diesel fuel in soils: Sand column tests monitored by CT scan imagery.

The use of surfactant foam for the remediation of diesel fuel, a Light Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (LNAPL), was investigated in sand column experiments using X-ray Computed Tomography (CT). A preliminary series of tests were carried out on six surfactant candidates in order to measure their physical properties, including critical micelle concentrations and interfacial tensions (IFT) with the LNAPL. Batch tests for foam stability were carried out with and without added LNAPL, in order to measure the half-life of foam columns produced with each surfactant candidate.

An integrated 3D CNN-GRU deep learning method for short-term prediction of PM2.5 concentration in urban environment.

This study proposes a new model for the spatiotemporal prediction of PM concentration at hourly and daily time intervals. It has been constructed on a combination of three-dimensional convolutional neural network and gated recurrent unit (3D CNN-GRU). The performance of the proposed model is boosted by learning spatial patterns from similar air quality (AQ) stations while maintaining long-term temporal dependencies with simultaneous learning and prediction for all stations over different time intervals.

Role of iron in gene expression and in the modulation of copper uptake in a freshwater alga: Insights on Cu and Fe assimilation pathways.

Metal uptake and toxicity can generally be related to its aqueous speciation and to the presence of competitive ions as described by the biotic ligand model. Beyond these simple chemical interactions at the surface of aquatic organisms, several internal biological feedback mechanisms can also modulate metal uptake. This is particularly important for essential elements for which specific transport systems were developed over the course of evolution.

Heat-related mortality prediction using low-frequency climate oscillation indices: Case studies of the cities of Montréal and Québec, Canada.

Unlabelled: Heat-related mortality is an increasingly important public health burden that is expected to worsen with climate change. In addition to long-term trends, there are also interannual variations in heat-related mortality that are of interest for efficient planning of health services. Large-scale climate patterns have an important influence on summer weather and therefore constitute important tools to understand and predict the variations in heat-related mortality.

Temperature and Photoperiod Affect the Sensitivity of Biofilms to Nickel and its Accumulation.

Whereas metal impacts on fluvial communities have been extensively investigated, effects of abiotic parameters on community responses to contaminants are poorly documented. Variations in photoperiod and temperature commonly occur over the course of a season and could affect aquatic biofilm communities and their responses to contaminants. Our objective was to characterize the influence of environmental conditions (photoperiod and temperature) on nickel (Ni) bioaccumulation and toxicity using a laboratory-grown biofilm.

Resilience of larval wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) to hydrocarbons and other compounds released from naturally weathered diluted bitumen in a boreal lake.

The risks to aquatic wildlife from spills of diluted bitumen (dilbit) into inland waters are poorly understood. In this paper, we describe the response of larval wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) to hydrocarbons and other compounds released from experimental spills of dilbit in a temperate boreal lake. To simulate a wide range of environmentally relevant oil spill scenarios, different volumes of Cold Lake Winter Blend dilbit (0, 1.

Structural shifts in sea ice prokaryotic communities across a salinity gradient in the subarctic.

Current knowledge of the processes that shape prokaryotic community assembly in sea ice across polar ecosystems is scarce. Here, we coupled culture-dependent (bacterial isolation on R2A medium) and culture-independent (high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing) approaches to provide the first comprehensive assessment of prokaryotic communities in the late winter ice and its underlying water along a natural salinity gradient in coastal Hudson Bay, an iconic cryo-environment that marks the ecological transition between Canadian Subarctic and Arctic biomes. We found that prokaryotic community assembly processes in the ice were less selective at low salinity since typical freshwater taxa such as Frankiales, Burkholderiales, and Chitinophagales dominated both the ice and its underlying water.

Physical process to sort construction and demolition waste (C&DW) fines components using process water.

Modern societies are generating considerable volume of Construction and Demolition Wastes (C&DW) annually. Most recycling facilities offers viable sorting and recycling options for the coarser particles of the different materials found in those wastes. However, usual dry mechanical sorting and human sorting are not efficient on C&DW fines particles (C&DF, <10 mm) representing the third of the C&DW produced and being composed of similar materials.