{"title":"Problems and prospects of thermal modernization of farm buildings in rural areas in Poland","authors":"Arkadiusz Piwowar","doi":"10.1186/s12302-024-00988-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12302-024-00988-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Thermal upgrading is an important element in the economic transformation of Poland towards a low-emission economy. This paper presents the results of research into the current status and plans of inhabitants of rural areas in Poland with regard to thermal upgrading of residential buildings and other buildings used in the agricultural activity of the study participants. The main purpose of the article is to identify thermal modernization needs and to analyse factors influencing individual thermal modernization plans in terms of replacement or modernization of heating systems. A key element of the analyses was the issue of upgrading priorities and the dependency between declared intentions in terms of thermal upgrading work and the production and economic features of the farms studied.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The main research material were surveys conducted with a randomly selected sample of 480 farming households in Poland. The analyses used, amongst others, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to determine and assess the relationships between the variables studied. Detailed correspondence analysis shows that there are strong dependencies between plans for thermal upgrading of farm buildings and the system of agricultural production (<i>φ</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.1503), the economic size of farms (<i>φ</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.1100), and the location of farms (<i>φ</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.0947).</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>The research showed that there is a need for thermal upgrading in the examined area of study, especially with regard to the replacement or modernisation of heating systems. The issue of thermal upgrading of residential and farm buildings in rural areas in Poland requires support and engagement at all levels of administration, as well as the modernisation of assistance programmes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":546,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Europe","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12302-024-00988-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142220310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ahmad M. Alhalabi, Mohammed A. Meetani, Ahmad Shabib, Munjed A. Maraqa
{"title":"Sorption of pharmaceutically active compounds to soils: a review","authors":"Ahmad M. Alhalabi, Mohammed A. Meetani, Ahmad Shabib, Munjed A. Maraqa","doi":"10.1186/s12302-024-00984-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12302-024-00984-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Pharmaceutically active compounds (PACs) are ubiquitous contaminants that can pollute the environment. This study critically analyzes the sorption of PACs to soil materials based on 137 published papers encompassing 106 PACs and 212 soil materials. The batch technique is commonly employed for sorption studies of PACs to soil, but the experimental setups vary in terms of the type and number of PACs, mixing time, solid to liquid (S/L) ratio, solution type, range of initial concentration, and bio-inhibition method. Sorption competition among PACs or between PACs and dissolved organic matter occurs for certain cases. Linear or close to linear behavior was reported for sorption of many PACs to soil, but sorption of some PACs deviates from linearity. The reaction of PACs to soil is fast at the initial stages but slows down as it approaches equilibrium. PACs characteristics, soil properties, and solution attributes intricately influence the sorption process. Zwitterionic PACs exhibit the highest sorption affinity, whereas neutral PACs display increased sensitivity to soil hydrophobicity. The average sorption coefficient (K) ranges from 0.0915 mL/g for anionic sulfonamides to 84725.5 mL/g for zwitterionic norfloxacin. An increase in the molar volume corresponds to heightened sorption for cationic PACs and reduced sorption for anionic PACs. Increasing solubility, soil organic carbon, cation exchange capacity, S/L ratio, and soil surface area while decreasing pH, ionic strength, and temperature result in an increase in K. The values of K determined by the batch technique are higher than their column-determined counterparts, possibly due to variations in the employed residence times between the two systems. Several models have been developed to estimate K of PACs, but they are limited in their applicability to specific PACs and soil types. Future research related to sorption of PACs to soils has been suggested.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":546,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Europe","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12302-024-00984-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142220389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chaitanya Baliram Pande, Lariyah Mohd Sidek, Abhay M. Varade, Ismail Elkhrachy, Neyara Radwan, Abebe Debele Tolche, Ahmed Elbeltagi
{"title":"Forecasting of meteorological drought using ensemble and machine learning models","authors":"Chaitanya Baliram Pande, Lariyah Mohd Sidek, Abhay M. Varade, Ismail Elkhrachy, Neyara Radwan, Abebe Debele Tolche, Ahmed Elbeltagi","doi":"10.1186/s12302-024-00975-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12302-024-00975-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study highlights drought forecasting for understanding the semi-arid area in India, where drought phenomena play vital role in the irrigation, drinking water supplies, and sustaining the ecological with economic balance for every nation. Therefore, drought forecasting is important for the future drought planning based on the machine learning (ML) models. Hence, The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) at 3- and 6-month periods have been selected and used for future drought forecasting scenarios in area. The combinations of ten inputs SPI-1- and SPI-10 were used for predicting modeling for SPI-3 and SPI-6 timescales, that modeling developed based on the historical SPI datasets from 1989 to 2019 years. The SPI-3 and SPI-6 maximum and minimum values are shown SPI-3 (2.03 and -5.522) and SPI-6 (1.94 and -6.93). The SPI is a popular method for estimating the drought analysis and has been used everywhere at global level. The developed models have been compared with each other, with the best combination of input variables selected using subset regression models and sensitivity studies. After that, the active input parameters were used for forecasting of SPI-3 and SPI-6 values to understanding of drought in semi-arid area. The finest input variables combination have been used in the Ml models and established the novel five models such as robust linear regression, bagged trees, boosted trees, support vector regression (SVM-Linear), and Matern Gaussian Process Regression (Matern GPR) models. Such kind of models first time has been applied for the forecasting of future drought conditions. Whole models were fine and improved modeling by using hyperparameters tuning, bagging, and boosting models. Entire ML models’ accuracy was compared using different statistical metrics. Compared with five ML models accuracy, we have found that the Matern GPR model better accuracy than other ML models. The best model accuracy is R<sup>2</sup> = 0.95 and 0.93, RMSE, MSE, MAE, MARE, and NSE values, respectively, for predicting SPI-3 and SPI-6 values in the area. Therefore, the Matern GPR model was identified as the finest ML algorithm for predicting SPI-3 and SPI-6 associated with other algorithms. This research demonstrates the Matern GPR model's efficacy in predicting multiscale SPI-3 and SPI-6 under climate variations. It can be helpful in soil and water resource conservation planning and management and understanding droughts in the entire basin areas of the country India.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":546,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Europe","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12302-024-00975-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142220311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tracking aquatic non-native macroinvertebrate species in Germany using long-term data","authors":"Phillip J. Haubrock, Irmak Kurtul, Antonín Kouba","doi":"10.1186/s12302-024-00986-7","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12302-024-00986-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Biological invasions pose a global challenge, threatening both biodiversity and human well-being. Projections suggest that as invasions increase, the financial costs associated with management and the ecological harm they cause will also escalate. Here, we examined whether long-term biomonitoring strategies were adequate to identify and track benthic aquatic non-native macroinvertebrate species by using the German subset (151 time series; 129 of which reported non-native species) of the currently most comprehensive European long-term dataset of 1816 macroinvertebrate community time series from 22 European countries. The detection of aquatic non-native species was directly linked to the availability of long-term sites and thus, monitoring effort, having identified the spatio-temporal occurrence of 32 non-native species. The available long-term monitoring site data were mostly concentrated in the western part of Germany, predominantly covering the Rhine River and its tributaries. The spatially biased network of long-term monitoring sites, therefore, naturally skews the detection and reporting of aquatic non-native species toward this area and underestimates Eastern and Southern regions, impeding the comprehension of invasion dynamics. However, based on the available data, we found that the absolute number of non-native species increased and the proportion of non-native species relative to native species decreased over time. This indicates complex ecological interactions between native and non-native species and underlines the value of long-term data for investigating invasion dynamics. Considering the value of comprehensive monitoring networks, a spatially biased network delays the application of management and mitigation plans, possibly worsening the ecological and economic effects of biological invasions in Germany. The results provided here indicate the disadvantages of biased datasets, but simultaneously underline the enormous potential of a dense network of long-term monitoring. Our results also highlight the urgent need to increase and diversify long-term biomonitoring efforts throughout Germany to cover the main freshwater resources and their connections where the introduction risk of non-native species is the highest. Centrally collating such data would provide a profound basis for the monitoring of spreading aquatic non-native species and could serve the implementation of national biosecurity efforts.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":546,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Europe","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12302-024-00986-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142220393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Till Wenzel, Rainer Bell, Michael Dietze, Lothar Schrott
{"title":"Persistent post-flood hillslope activity posing a potential landslide dam hazard in the Ahr valley, Germany","authors":"Till Wenzel, Rainer Bell, Michael Dietze, Lothar Schrott","doi":"10.1186/s12302-024-00985-8","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12302-024-00985-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Extreme floods are known to severely reorganise inhabited landscapes by inundation, clogging, scouring and damaging infrastructure and lives. However, their post-event impacts are poorly understood, especially concerning coupled hillslope channel feedbacks such as the reactivation of slope instabilities connected to the river and that may be able to block it upon sudden failure. The July 2021 Ahr valley flood exemplified this ability of concurrent and sustained landscape reorganisation. Here, we study a retrogressive slope instability near the town of Müsch, in the upper Ahr valley using field mapping, repeat airborne laser scanning, electrical resistivity tomography and passive seismic monitoring to reveal the failure geometry, its mechanisms and transient activity.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The old landslide developed in lower Devonian rocks. It is 100 m wide, 200 m long and approximately 15–20 m deep, which leads to a total volume of about 430,000 m<sup>3</sup>. This landslide was severely undercut by the 2021 flood with 7000 m<sup>3</sup> of material eroded at the landslide toe. The landslide has started to react. Given the narrow section of the river at this location, there is a potential landslide dam hazard. We modelled the inundation volumes and back fill times for different failure scenarios, ranging between 20,000 m<sup>3</sup> and 330,000 m<sup>3</sup> accumulating within 5 min and 20 h.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Our results imply a need to systematically screen flood impacted landscapes for sustained post-event hillslope activity that governs hillslope-channel coupling, driving both persistent sediment injection into the stream and sudden river blocking and subsequent damming.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":546,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Europe","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12302-024-00985-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142220312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jeane A. dela Cruz, Tessa Camenzind, Baile Xu, Matthias C. Rillig
{"title":"Limited role of fungal diversity in maintaining soil processes in grassland soil under concurrent fungicide stress","authors":"Jeane A. dela Cruz, Tessa Camenzind, Baile Xu, Matthias C. Rillig","doi":"10.1186/s12302-024-00983-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12302-024-00983-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Fungicides are an effective tool for protecting crops and maintaining a steady food supply. However, as pathogens continue to evolve, it is crucial to prolong the effectiveness of fungicides by delaying resistance development. A key strategy to achieving this is to combine or rotate fungicides with different modes of action. As fungicides lack specificity, they inevitably affect both pathogenic and non-pathogenic fungi when surrounding environments are unintentionally contaminated. Our study aims to investigate the effects of recommended application methods to prevent resistance development, specifically repeated-single fungicide, simultaneous mixture, and sequential applications on non-target soil fungi, and the subsequent impacts on important soil processes. We used fungicides with different modes of action on soil microcosms inoculated with fungi at varying levels of diversity (3, 5, and 8 species) isolated from a protected grassland.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>We found that repeated treatments of individual isopyrazam and prothioconazole differentially inhibited fungal activity. Although mixture applications are considered more protectant against crop pathogen resistance than repeated application, our study revealed stronger negative effects of simultaneous application on saprobic fungi and consequently on soil processes. However, contrary to expectations, higher fungal diversity did not translate to improved soil function under these conditions.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>The simultaneous application of fungicides with different modes of action (MoA) has more pronounced non-target effects on soil compared to the individual or sequential application of fungicides. These non-target effects extend beyond the intended control of pathogenic fungi, impacting saprobic and beneficial soil microbes and the critical processes they drive. When fungicides are applied concurrently, microbial activities in the soil are significantly altered, even in soils with high microbial diversity. Our study emphasizes the importance of carefully considering the unintended consequences of fungicide use in agriculture. As we strive for a secure food supply, it is crucial to investigate the broader environmental impacts of these chemical interventions, including their effects on non-pathogenic fungi and overall soil health.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":546,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Europe","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12302-024-00983-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142220351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nudrat Fatima, Hu Xuhua, Hind Alnafisah, Saher Zeast, Muhammad Rehan Akhtar
{"title":"Enhancing climate action in OECD countries: the role of environmental policy stringency for energy transitioning to a sustainable environment","authors":"Nudrat Fatima, Hu Xuhua, Hind Alnafisah, Saher Zeast, Muhammad Rehan Akhtar","doi":"10.1186/s12302-024-00978-7","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12302-024-00978-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Climate change affects the world economy, environment, and human well-being, jeopardizing overall sustainability. The escalating impacts of climate change emphasize the necessity to assess the moderating influence of environmental policy stringency (EPS) on the association of energy transition (ET) and GHG emissions from 1990 to 2020 across 36 OECD countries. Further, this study incorporates the direct impact of energy transition (ET), environmental-related technology (ERTs), green innovation (INV), and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on GHG emission. For this purpose, study employs an extensive range of econometric techniques, including DOLS, FMOLS, CCR, and MMQR approaches to evaluate data attributes. The findings of MMQR demonstrate that interaction of ET*EPS contributes to lower GHG emissions from −0.271% to −0.300% across all quantiles (20th to 80th). This indicates that the implementation of environmental policies fosters adoption of energy transitions to mitigate the negative effects of climate change, particularly to reduce GHG emissions. Further, environmental-related technologies (ERTs) and green innovation (INV) decrease GHG emissions by 0.15%–0.13% and 0.967%–2.049%, respectively, across all quantiles, thus encouraging environmental sustainability. The heterogeneous effect of ERTs is due to varying levels of adoption of environmental technologies in sample countries. The findings highlight the crucial need for integrating environmental policy strictness and energy transition measures to effectively mitigate GHG emissions. It highlights the significance of adaptive, responsive policies that are in line with SDGs 7 & 13, which concentrate on sustainable energy practices and integrated climate action in OECD economies.</p><h3>Graphical Abstract</h3>\u0000<div><figure><div><div><picture><source><img></source></picture></div></div></figure></div></div>","PeriodicalId":546,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Europe","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12302-024-00978-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142220352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Krishnagopal Halder, Amit Kumar Srivastava, Anitabha Ghosh, Ranajit Nabik, Subrata Pan, Uday Chatterjee, Dipak Bisai, Subodh Chandra Pal, Wenzhi Zeng, Frank Ewert, Thomas Gaiser, Chaitanya Baliram Pande, Abu Reza Md. Towfiqul Islam, Edris Alam, Md Kamrul Islam
{"title":"Application of bagging and boosting ensemble machine learning techniques for groundwater potential mapping in a drought-prone agriculture region of eastern India","authors":"Krishnagopal Halder, Amit Kumar Srivastava, Anitabha Ghosh, Ranajit Nabik, Subrata Pan, Uday Chatterjee, Dipak Bisai, Subodh Chandra Pal, Wenzhi Zeng, Frank Ewert, Thomas Gaiser, Chaitanya Baliram Pande, Abu Reza Md. Towfiqul Islam, Edris Alam, Md Kamrul Islam","doi":"10.1186/s12302-024-00981-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12302-024-00981-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Groundwater is a primary source of drinking water for billions worldwide. It plays a crucial role in irrigation, domestic, and industrial uses, and significantly contributes to drought resilience in various regions. However, excessive groundwater discharge has left many areas vulnerable to potable water shortages. Therefore, assessing groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) is essential for implementing sustainable management practices to ensure the availability of groundwater for present and future generations. This study aims to delineate areas with high groundwater potential in the Bankura district of West Bengal using four machine learning methods: Random Forest (RF), Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and Voting Ensemble (VE). The models used 161 data points, comprising 70% of the training dataset, to identify significant correlations between the presence and absence of groundwater in the region. Among the methods, Random Forest (RF) and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) proved to be the most effective in mapping groundwater potential, suggesting their applicability in other regions with similar hydrogeological conditions. The performance metrics for RF are very good with a precision of 0.919, recall of 0.971, F1-score of 0.944, and accuracy of 0.943. This indicates a strong capability to accurately predict groundwater zones with minimal false positives and negatives. Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost) demonstrated comparable performance across all metrics (precision: 0.919, recall: 0.971, F1-score: 0.944, accuracy: 0.943), highlighting its effectiveness in predicting groundwater potential areas accurately; whereas, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) outperformed the other models slightly, with higher values in all metrics: precision (0.944), recall (0.971), F1-score (0.958), and accuracy (0.957), suggesting a more refined model performance. The Voting Ensemble (VE) approach also showed enhanced performance, mirroring XGBoost's metrics (precision: 0.944, recall: 0.971, F1-score: 0.958, accuracy: 0.957). This indicates that combining the strengths of individual models leads to better predictions. The groundwater potentiality zoning across the Bankura district varied significantly, with areas of very low potentiality accounting for 41.81% and very high potentiality at 24.35%. The uncertainty in predictions ranged from 0.0 to 0.75 across the study area, reflecting the variability in groundwater availability and the need for targeted management strategies.</p><p>In summary, this study highlights the critical need for assessing and managing groundwater resources effectively using advanced machine learning techniques. The findings provide a foundation for better groundwater management practices, ensuring sustainable use and conservation in Bankura district and beyond.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":546,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Europe","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12302-024-00981-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142220353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The first spatio-temporal study of the microplastics and meso–macroplastics transport in the Romanian Danube","authors":"Ionut Procop, Madalina Calmuc, Sebastian Pessenlehner, Cristina Trifu, Alina Cantaragiu Ceoromila, Valentina Andreea Calmuc, Catalin Fetecău, Catalina Iticescu, Viorica Musat, Marcel Liedermann","doi":"10.1186/s12302-024-00969-8","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12302-024-00969-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Transport, accumulation, and degradation of microplastics (MiPs) in the aquatic environment represent a significant concern to the researchers and policy-makers, due to the detrimental impact on biota and human health through food ingestion. Although consistent investigations and research data are available worldwide, comparing the results is still challenging due to the need for more regulations regarding the sampling methods, analysis, and results reporting. The European regulatory efforts include studies on the MiPs transport in the western basin of the Danube River developed with active nets-based multipoint sampling methods from suspended sediments and proposed for standardization. In this context, the present study aimed to address for the first time the transport of MiPs in the Romanian sector of the Danube, starting after entering the country (Moldova Veche) and before the formation of the Danube Delta (Isaccea).</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The multipoint nets sampling procedure facilitated the collection of suspended sediments in the water columns as deep as 0.0–0.6 and 3.0–3.6 m depths and near riverbed sediments (autumn 2022 sampling) during an extensive spatio-temporal study from spring 2022 until spring 2023. The estimate of the maximum annual transport of 46–51 and 93–100 t·y<sup>−1</sup> for MiPs and total (micro–meso–macroplastics) MPs at Moldova Veche was based on 135 collected and processed samples using 2021 water flow data. Polyethylene (58–69%) and polypropylene (21–33%) were the main polymer components in the separated fragments, foils, microfibers, and different colors spheroids of MiPs ( < 5 mm), and the foils and fibers of meso–macroplastics (5–100 mm). Advanced investigations highlighted various microstructural degradations of the plastic fragments at the micro- and nanoscale and attached minerals (clays) and heavy metals.</p><h3>Conclusion</h3><p>This paper presents the first comprehensive data set for microplastic annual transport in the \"Low Danube\", filling the need for a complete transport assessment in one of the most significant European rivers. 4–5 times lower values were measured before the entrance to the Danube Delta than those from Moldova Veche. The investigations should continue, including flooding events, and the sampling points should be expanded to deeper water column layers during all the campaigns for further validation.</p><h3>Graphical Abstract</h3>\u0000<div><figure><div><div><picture><source><img></source></picture></div></div></figure></div></div>","PeriodicalId":546,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Europe","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12302-024-00969-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142220350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seyedehmehrmanzar Sohrab, Nándor Csikós, Péter Szilassi
{"title":"Effect of geographical parameters on PM10 pollution in European landscapes: a machine learning algorithm-based analysis","authors":"Seyedehmehrmanzar Sohrab, Nándor Csikós, Péter Szilassi","doi":"10.1186/s12302-024-00972-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12302-024-00972-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>PM<sub>10</sub>, comprising particles with diameters of 10 µm or less, has been identified as a significant environmental pollutant associated with adverse health outcomes in European cities. Understanding the temporal variation of the relationship between PM<sub>10</sub> and geographical parameters is crucial for sustainable land use planning and air quality management in European landscapes. This study utilizes Conditional Inference Forest modeling and partial correlation to examine the impact of geographical factors on monthly average concentrations of PM<sub>10</sub> in European suburban and urban landscapes during heating and cooling periods. The investigation focuses on two buffer zones (1000 m and 3000 m circle radiuses) surrounding 1216 European air quality monitoring stations.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>Results reveal importance and significant correlations between various geographical variables (soil texture, land use, transportation network, and meteorological) and PM<sub>10</sub> quality on a continental scale. In suburban landscapes, soil texture, temperature, roads, and rail density play pivotal roles, while meteorological variables, particularly monthly average temperature and wind speed, dominate in urban landscapes. Urban sites exhibit higher <i>R</i>-squared values during both cooling (0.41) and heating periods (0.61) compared to suburban sites (cooling period <i>R</i>-squared: 0.39; heating period: <i>R</i>-squared: 0.51), indicating better predictive performance likely attributed to the less heterogeneous land use patterns surrounding urban PM<sub>10</sub> monitoring sites.</p><h3>Conclusion</h3><p>The study underscores the importance of investigating spatial and temporal dynamics of geographical factors for accurate PM<sub>10</sub> air quality prediction models in European urban and suburban landscapes. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers, urban planners, and environmental scientists, guiding efforts toward sustainable and healthier urban environments.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":546,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Europe","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12302-024-00972-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142220354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}