2,259 results match your criteria: "Lancaster Environment Centre[Affiliation]"
NanoImpact
December 2024
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy.
In 2018 the European Commission adopted revisions to the Annexes of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 concerning registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (REACH) to introduce nanomaterial-specific clarifications and provisions. Multicomponent nanomaterial (MCNM) is a non-regulatory term that has been used in recent EU-funded projects to describe nanomaterials with a complex structure and/or composition and which are expected to be increasingly used in products in the near future. This paper examines the regulatory preparedness of REACH, and its revised Annexes, for MCNMs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Int
December 2024
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Edinburgh, Bush Estate, Penicuik EH26 0QB, UK.
Countries in South Asia are suffering severe PM pollution with rapid economic development, impacting human health and the environment. Whilst much attention has been given to understanding the contribution of primary emissions, the contribution of agriculture to PM concentrations, especially from agricultural ammonia (NH) emissions, remains less explored. Using an advanced regional atmospheric chemistry and transport modelling system (WRF-EMEP) with a new estimate of anthropogenic NH emissions inputs, we estimate the influence of agricultural NH emissions on surface PM in South Asia and evaluate the health impacts and the economic losses attributable to PM in 2018.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSSM Qual Res Health
December 2024
Division of Health Research, Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA14YW, UK.
This qualitative synthesis explores the experiences of UK communities facing growing health risks from climate change and extreme weather. The eight included studies show the profound impacts of extreme weather events such as floods on mental health, including challenges to self-identity and anxiety from the fear of flooding returning. Included data reveal individual and household impacts of extreme weather are mediated by a complex interaction of institutional support, community support, gender inequalities and personal agency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Microbiome
December 2024
School of Life Sciences, The University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK.
The genus Tetracladium has historically been regarded as an aquatic hyphomycete. However, sequencing of terrestrial ecosystems has shown that Tetracladium species might also be terrestrial soil and plant-inhabiting fungi. The diversity of Tetracladium species, their distribution across ecosystems, and the factors that shape community composition remain largely unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWaste Manag
December 2024
Institute for Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES) - Soil Science and Soil Ecology, University of Bonn, Nussallee 13, 53115 Bonn, Germany. Electronic address:
Green and biowaste, processed within large facilities into compost, is a key fertilizer for agricultural and horticultural soils. However, due to improper waste disposal of plastic, its residues often remain or even lead to the formation ofmicroplastics (1 µm - 5 mm, MiPs) in the final compost product. To better understand the processes, we first quantified 'macroplastics' (> 20 mm, MaPs) input via biowaste collection into an industrial composting plant, and, then determined MiP concentrations at five stages during the composting process (before and after shredding and screening processes), and in the water used for irrigation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
December 2024
Lancaster University, Lancaster Environment Centre, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK. Electronic address:
Crude oil spills and discharges from refineries, mining, and industrial activities can introduce trace metals into marine environments. Determining trace metal concentrations and speciation in seawater is challenging due to the complex matrix and high salinity. This study developed a novel approach using modified diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) to measure labile concentrations and speciation of Co, Ni, Cu, Cd, Pb, and Zn in crude oil-contaminated seawater.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Biol
December 2024
Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, United States of America.
Experiments comparing diploids with polyploids and in single grassland sites show that nitrogen and/or phosphorus availability influences plant growth and community composition dependent on genome size; specifically, plants with larger genomes grow faster under nutrient enrichments relative to those with smaller genomes. However, it is unknown if these effects are specific to particular site localities with speciifc plant assemblages, climates, and historical contingencies. To determine the generality of genome size-dependent growth responses to nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization, we combined genome size and species abundance data from 27 coordinated grassland nutrient addition experiments in the Nutrient Network that occur in the Northern Hemisphere across a range of climates and grassland communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Ecol Evol
December 2024
Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
Anthropogenic landscape modification may lead to the proliferation of a few species and the loss of many. Here we investigate mechanisms and functional consequences of this winner-loser replacement in six human-modified Amazonian and Atlantic Forest regions in Brazil using a causal inference framework. Combining floristic and functional trait data for 1,207 tree species across 271 forest plots, we find that forest loss consistently caused an increased dominance of low-density woods and small seeds dispersed by endozoochory (winner traits) and the loss of distinctive traits, such as extremely dense woods and large seeds dispersed by synzoochory (loser traits).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Sustain Food Syst
June 2024
School of Biosciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Malaysia.
Food environments are rapidly changing globally, both in developed and developing contexts, contributing to poor dietary habits and environmental concerns. As a result, more than 80% of countries in the world face different forms of malnutrition, while the environment faces further degradation due to unsustainable production and consumption patterns. Understanding food environments in diverse settings via a global lens is critical for facilitating the global transition to sustainable and healthy food environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Qual
December 2024
Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
Legacy phosphorus (P) is a concept advanced by Dr. Andrew Sharpley and colleagues that was originally applied to the persistence of anthropogenic signatures in watersheds, and it has since been adopted in a diversity of settings to help guide the science and management of P. Following Sharpley's example to develop consensus-based science, we considered contrasting perspectives on legacy P and defined legacy P as those stores within the environment that arise from historic human activity excluding "natural" or "background" geogenic sources.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInsect Biochem Mol Biol
December 2024
Key Laboratory of Biology and Sustainable Management of Plant Diseases and Pests of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, College of Plant Protection, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China; Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. Electronic address:
Spermatogenesis is a key process for the sexual reproduction species. In lepidopteran insects, spermatogenesis produces two different types of sperms, in which eupyrene sperm carry genomic DNA and fertilize eggs, whereas apyrene sperm are necessary for eupyrene sperm to enter eggs. However, functional genetic studies of spermatogenesis in Plutella xylostella remain a longstanding puzzle even though the phenomenon in lepidoptera has been widely documented more than a century.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcotoxicol Environ Saf
December 2024
Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES), Soil Science and Soil Ecology, University of Bonn, Nussallee 13, Bonn 53115, Germany; Agrosphere Institute (IBG-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Wilhelm-Johnen-Str, Jülich 52425, Germany.
Microplastic (MiP) contamination poses environmental risks, but harmonizing data from different quantification methods and sample matrices remains challenging. We compared analytical protocols for MiP quantification in soil, consisting of Digital, Fluorescence, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), and Raman Microscopy as well as quantitative Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (Py-GC-MS) and 1-proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H NMR) spectroscopy as detection techniques. Each technique was coupled with a specific extraction procedure and evaluated for three soils with different textures and organic carbon contents, amended with eight types of large MiPs (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Manage
December 2024
Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom.
Bloom-forming algae present a unique challenge to water managers as they can significantly impair provision of important ecosystem services and cause health risks to humans and animals. Consequently, effective short-term algae forecasts are important as they provide early warnings and enable implementation of mitigation strategies. In this context, machine learning (ML) emerges as a promising forecasting tool.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAquat Toxicol
November 2024
UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster LA1 4AP, United Kingdom.
The WHAM-Fβ model describes the toxic effects of mixtures of protons and metal cations towards biological species, using a set of intrinsic parameters for the cations (α, α*) and a sensitivity parameter (β) for each species. We applied the model to extensive water chemistry and zooplankton species occurrence data for four lakes contaminated with acidity and metals (Al, Ni, Cu, Zn) at Sudbury, Ontario, over the period 1973-2018, during which cation contamination declined, and zooplankton species numbers increased. Assuming that the appearance of a species resulted solely from decreases in water toxicity, and that α and α* values previously derived from laboratory toxicity test data could be applied in the field, we used the field data to estimate values of β for individual lake zooplankton species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNature
December 2024
Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Increasing extreme climatic events threaten the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Because soil microbes govern key biogeochemical processes, understanding their response to climate extremes is crucial in predicting the consequences for ecosystem functioning. Here we subjected soils from 30 grasslands across Europe to four contrasting extreme climatic events under common controlled conditions (drought, flood, freezing and heat), and compared the response of soil microbial communities and their functioning with those of undisturbed soils.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWater Res
February 2025
Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK.
Neonicotinoid insecticides (NNIs) are among the most widely-used insecticides, although their threat to non-target organisms has attracted attention in recent years. In this study, a diffusive gradient in thin-films (DGT) passive sampling technique was developed for in situ monitoring of time-weighted average (TWA) concentrations of NNIs in groundwater and wastewater. Systematic studies demonstrated that DGT with HLB as binding gels (HLB-DGT) is suitable for quantitative sampling of NNIs under a wide range of conditions, independent of pH (5-9.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNPJ Nat Hazards
November 2024
Wilp Wilx̱o'oskwhl Nisg̱a'a Institute, Gitwinksihlkw, BC Canada.
Indigenous peoples are widely affected by natural hazards and their history and knowledge can directly inform on past events and mitigation strategies. Here we show how effective co-creation of resources and bi-lateral knowledge exchange between natural hazard researchers and local Indigenous communities provides an effective, equitable, and sustainable way to conduct research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTalanta
March 2025
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China. Electronic address:
The pH of environmental systems plays a crucial role in determining pollutant behavior, necessitating the development of effective tools for real-time monitoring. This study introduces a novel series of lipophilic HPTS derivatives, developed through a two-step synthesis route, designed as pH-sensitive dyes, characterized by high fluorescence intensity, photostability, dual excitation/single emission, and significant Stokes shifts. We engineered self-ratiometric pH-sensing planar optode foils and investigated the impact of carbon chain length on foil durability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethods Enzymol
November 2024
Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom. Electronic address:
Rubisco is the key enzyme in photosynthesis, catalyzing fixation of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into energy storage molecules. Several inefficiencies in Rubisco limit the rate of photosynthesis, and, therefore, the growth of the plant. Rubisco is sensitive to light, making deactivation of the enzyme upon sampling likely.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatterns (N Y)
November 2024
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4AP, UK.
Digital research infrastructure (DRI) for environmental science requires significant transformation to support the changing nature of science and utilize digital innovations. Numerous challenges prevent this change yet simultaneously pose exciting principles to drive the future of DRI. This opinion piece details a multi-dimensional approach toward these futures for the environmental community.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
November 2024
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4AP, UK.
Current understanding of soil carbon dynamics suggests that plant litter quality and soil mineralogy control the formation of mineral-associated soil organic carbon (SOC). Due to more efficient microbial anabolism, high-quality litter may produce more microbial residues for stabilisation on mineral surfaces. To test these fundamental concepts, we manipulate soil mineralogy using pristine minerals, characterise microbial communities and use stable isotopes to measure decomposition of low- and high-quality litter and mineral stabilisation of litter-C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Pollut Res Int
December 2024
School of Ecology and Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST), Nanjing, 210044, China.
An international workshop on "Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change and Air Pollution" took place at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China, during 23-27 October, 2023. Experts working in various multi-disciplinary areas of agroecosystem and environmental research gathered for academic communication and discussions. Two discussion groups focused on "agriculture under air pollution and climate change: current challenges and priorities for the future" and "adapting agriculture to air pollution and climate change: current status and next steps.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew Phytol
November 2024
School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
Tomato is a major global crop. However, its production is limited by Botrytis cinerea. Due to the toxicity of postharvest pesticide application, alternative control methods such as priming are being investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Rev Camb Philos Soc
November 2024
Department of Hydrobiology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznanskiego 6, Poznan, 61-614, Poland.
Phytoplankton is an essential resource in aquatic ecosystems, situated at the base of aquatic food webs. Plastic pollution can impact these organisms, potentially affecting the functioning of aquatic ecosystems. The interaction between plastics and phytoplankton is multifaceted: while microplastics can exert toxic effects on phytoplankton, plastics can also act as a substrate for colonisation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFiScience
November 2024
VIB - KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Gaston Geenslaan 1, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.