Bioremediation of contaminated soil and groundwater by biostimulation.

Bioremediation by biostimulation is an attractive alternative to excavation of contaminated soil. Many remediation methods have been tested with some success; however, due to highly variable results in realistic field conditions, they have not been implemented as widely as they might deserve. To ensure success, methods should be validated under site-analogous conditions before full scale use, which requires expertise and local knowledge by the implementers.

Global warming intensifies the interference competition by a poleward-expanding invader on a native dragonfly species.

Rapid climate warming has boosted biological invasions and the distribution or expansion polewards of many species: this can cause serious impacts on local ecosystems within the invaded areas. Subsequently, native species may be exposed to threats of both interspecific competition with invaders and temperature rises. However, effects of warming on interspecific interactions, especially competition between invader and native species remains unclear.

Prenatal Exposure to Heavy Metals and Adverse Birth Outcomes: Evidence From an E-Waste Area in China.

Electronic waste that has not been properly treated can lead to environmental contamination including of heavy metals, which can pose risks to human health. Infants, a sensitive group, are highly susceptible to heavy metals exposure. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between prenatal heavy metal exposure and infant birth outcomes in an e-waste recycling area in China.

PALEOEPIDEMIOLOGY OF DIPHYLLOBOTHRIOSIS: CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECTING ADENOCEPHALUS INTENSITY AND PREVALENCE.

Peruvian and Chilean mummies and coprolites provide a source of population-based parasitological information. This is especially true of the fish tapeworm, Adenocephalus pacificus. Our analysis of Chinchorro and Chiribaya mummies and diversified coprolite samples from Chile and Peru show variation in infection.

Diazotrophic nitrogen fixation through aerial roots occurs in Avicennia marina: implications for adaptation of mangrove plant growth to low-nitrogen tidal flats.

Nitrogen limitation of primary production is common in coastal ecosystems. Mangrove trees maintain high levels of nitrogen fixation around their roots. The interior aerial space of mangrove roots, in which atmospheric gas is supplied through lenticels, could be efficient sites for nitrogen fixation.

Material and monetary flows of construction and demolition waste and assessment on physical and environmental properties of illegally dumped construction and demolition waste in Hanoi.

The main aim of this study is to investigate the material and monetary flows of CDW management and to characterize the distribution of illegally dumped CDW in Hanoi. Construction and demolition waste management has become a source of much concern to the urban authorities and citizens of big cities in Vietnam. It is estimated that 3000 t of CDW were generated per day from construction and demolition activities in Hanoi, but only 45% of the CDW was received at official landfills, while 55% of the CDW was disposed of elsewhere.

Anthropogenic warming induced intensification of summer monsoon frontal precipitation over East Asia.

Summer monsoon frontal rainfall in East Asia (EA) is crucial for water resources and flood hazards in densely populated areas. Recent studies have documented the increasing intensity of summer frontal rainfall over recent decades. However, the extent of ongoing climate change on the intensification of the EA frontal precipitation system remains uncertain.

Mobile phone data reveals spatiotemporal recreational patterns in conservation areas during the COVID pandemic.

Understanding visitation patterns is crucial in developing effective conservation strategies for protected areas, as it serves as an indicator for operating an ecosystem management plan that balances biodiversity and ecosystem services intertwined with public health and social benefits. However, limited data availability during the COVID-19 pandemic has hindered the comprehensive understanding of temporal changes in realized cultural ecosystem services, particularly in recreational activities within these areas. Our study utilized GPS data from mobile phones to quantify visitor characteristics and their contribution to recreational ecosystem services in protected areas at a national scale during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Flood insurance is a driver of population growth in European floodplains.

Future flood risk assessments typically focus on changing hazard conditions as a result of climate change, where flood exposure is assumed to remain static or develop according to exogenous scenarios. However, this study presents a method to project future riverine flood risk in Europe by simulating population growth in floodplains, where households' settlement location decisions endogenously depend on environmental and institutional factors, including amenities associated with river proximity, riverine flood risk, and insurance against this risk. Our results show that population growth in European floodplains and, consequently, rising riverine flood risk are considerably higher when the dis-amenity caused by flood risk is offset by insurance.

Investigation of HO uptake mechanisms onto multiple-component ambient aerosols collected in summer and winter time in Yokohama, Japan.

The heterogeneous loss of HO radicals onto ambient aerosols plays an important role in tropospheric chemistry. However, sparse investigation of the dominating parameters controlling the HO uptake coefficients onto ambient aerosols (γHO) has largely hindered the application of the measured γHO to the global spatial prediction. Here we induced an offline method using LFP-LIF technique to measure the kinetics of HO uptake onto ambient aerosols collected in summertime and wintertime in Yokohama city, a regional urban site near Tokyo, Japan.

Why has farming in Europe changed? A farmers' perspective on the development since the 1960s.

Unlabelled: Farming in Europe has been the scene of several important socio-economic and environmental developments and crises throughout the last century. Therefore, an understanding of the historical driving forces of farm change helps identifying potentials for navigating future pathways of agricultural development. However, long-term driving forces have so far been studied, e.

Biodiversity modeling advances will improve predictions of nature's contributions to people.

Accurate predictions of ecosystem functions and nature's contributions to people (NCP) are needed to prioritize environmental protection and restoration in the Anthropocene. However, our ability to predict NCP is undermined by approaches that rely on biophysical variables and ignore those describing biodiversity, which have strong links to NCP. To foster predictive mapping of NCP, we should harness the latest methods in biodiversity modeling.

Net impact of air conditioning on heat-related mortality in Japanese cities.

Background: Air conditioning (AC) presents a viable means of tackling the ill-effects of heat on human health. However, AC releases additional anthropogenic heat outdoors, and this could be detrimental to human health, especially in urban communities. This study determined the excess heat-related mortality attributable to anthropogenic heat from AC use under various projected global warming scenarios in seven Japanese cities.

Substantial light woodland and open vegetation characterized the temperate forest biome before .

The extent of vegetation openness in past European landscapes is widely debated. In particular, the temperate forest biome has traditionally been defined as dense, closed-canopy forest; however, some argue that large herbivores maintained greater openness or even wood-pasture conditions. Here, we address this question for the Last Interglacial period (129,000-116,000 years ago), before -linked megafauna declines and anthropogenic landscape transformation.

Conflicts of Interest in the Assessment of Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution.

Pollution by chemicals and waste impacts human and ecosystem health on regional, national, and global scales, resulting, together with climate change and biodiversity loss, in a triple planetary crisis. Consequently, in 2022, countries agreed to establish an intergovernmental science-policy panel (SPP) on chemicals, waste, and pollution prevention, complementary to the existing intergovernmental science-policy bodies on climate change and biodiversity. To ensure the SPP's success, it is imperative to protect it from conflicts of interest (COI).

30×30 biodiversity gains rely on national coordination.

Global commitments to protect 30% of land by 2030 present an opportunity to combat the biodiversity crisis, but reducing extinction risk will depend on where countries expand protection. Here, we explore a range of 30×30 conservation scenarios that vary what dimension of biodiversity is prioritized (taxonomic groups, species-at-risk, biodiversity facets) and how protection is coordinated (transnational, national, or regional approaches) to test which decisions influence our ability to capture biodiversity in spatial planning. Using Canada as a model nation, we evaluate how well each scenario captures biodiversity using scalable indicators while accounting for climate change, data bias, and uncertainty.

Association Between Awareness of Limiting Food Intake and All-cause Mortality: A Cohort Study in Japan.

Background: Improving diets requires an awareness of the need to limit foods for which excessive consumption is a health problem. Since there are limited reports on the link between this awareness and mortality risk, we examined the association between awareness of limiting food intake (energy, fat, and sweets) and all-cause mortality in a Japanese cohort study.

Methods: Participants comprised 58,772 residents (27,294 men; 31,478 women) aged 35-69 years who completed baseline surveys of the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study from 2004 to 2014.

Food Web Structures and Mercury Exposure Pathway to Fish in Minamata Bay.

We analyzed total mercury content (THg) and carbon (δC) and nitrogen (δN) stable isotope ratios in fish, subtidal macrobenthos, and particulate organic matter (POM) as a proxy for pelagic phytoplankton and attached microalgae as a proxy for microphytobenthos to investigate the mercury exposure pathway in fish. For four seasons, samples of the above-mentioned organisms were collected on five occasions (July and October 2018 and January, April, and July 2019) in Minamata Bay. Isotope analysis showed that Minamata Bay food web structures were almost entirely fueled by microphytobenthos.

Diurnal and geographic variations of pollinator importance for Duchesne.

Despite growing awareness of the importance of monitoring wild crop pollinators worldwide, there are still few reports, especially in East Asia. Considering ongoing global warming may change the distribution range and diurnal activity of pollinators, it is necessary to describe current geographic and diurnal patterns. We clarified pollinators of Duchesne (Cucurbitales: Cucurbitaceae) in three geographically distinct (>350 km, minimum) areas in Japan, focusing on diurnal variation.