Article
Engineering, Environmental
Ronald A. Hites
Summary: Urban areas are major sources of PAH in the atmosphere, with PAH concentrations increasing with the number of people living and working nearby. PAH concentrations are decreasing over time, with seasonal and wind direction/speed factors also influencing their levels.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Nandita B. Basu, J. Dony, K. J. Van Meter, Samuel J. Johnston, Anita T. Layton
Summary: Excess nutrient inputs from agricultural and urban sources have led to eutrophication and algal blooms in the Great Lakes Basin. Using a random forest machine learning model, we found that land use and management, including agricultural and urban land, tile drainage, and wetland density, are important predictors of nutrient concentrations in the basin. The study highlights the importance of livestock and drainage management, as well as wetland restoration, in addressing eutrophication in intensively managed landscapes.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
James J. Pagano, Andrew J. Garner
Summary: The study investigated the levels of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) in lake trout and walleye in the Great Lakes region from 2004 to 2018. Most sampling sites showed a decrease in PCN concentrations and toxic equivalence (TEQ) over the period, except for Lake Erie where concentrations increased. Furthermore, the study found a significant shift towards lower-chlorinated composition of PCN congeners in lake trout and walleye, leading to a substantial reduction in overall PCN TEQ burden.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
A. Samad, U. Vogt
Summary: This study focused on the air quality in cities, particularly in Stuttgart, Germany, using a mobile measurement platform with a bicycle. The results showed a high spatial variability in pollutant concentration, influenced by factors such as local traffic, measurement location, and meteorological conditions. The use of a bicycle as part of the mobile measurement platform proved to be highly adaptive and flexible, providing valuable information on spatial distribution of pollutants.
ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Yingming Li, Siyuan Xiong, Yanfen Hao, Ruiqiang Yang, Qinghua Zhang, Frank Wania, Guibin Jiang
Summary: A study in the Arctic region of Ny-Alesund found concentrations of seven organophosphate ethers (OPEs), with non-chlorinated and chlorinated OPEs being equally abundant. The average atmospheric concentration for the sum of OPEs was around 300 pg/m³. The study also observed increasing trends in the concentrations of the two most abundant OPE compounds. Additionally, slightly elevated levels of OPEs were found at two sampling sites near a research station and the local airport.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tassiane P. Junqueira, Daniel F. Araujo, Anna L. Harrison, Kaj Sullivan, Matthew I. Leybourne, Bas Vriens
Summary: This study used copper stable isotopes to assess copper loads and sources in two major river systems in Canada. The results showed that while the hydrochemical compositions of the river waters were consistent, the copper concentrations varied spatially. The study also revealed that the copper isotope patterns differed between the two river systems, indicating different sourcing and contributions to the copper loads.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Kevin B. White, Jiri Kalina, Martin Scheringer, Petra Pribylova, Petr Kukucka, Jiri Kohoutek, Roman Prokes, Jana Klanova
Summary: The Global Monitoring Plan of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) aims to generate long-term data for evaluating the effectiveness of regulatory measures globally. After 15 years of monitoring, MONET network provides sufficient data for analyzing the long-term trends of POPs in air across Europe. This study reports the concentrations of 20 POPs monitored at 32 sites in 27 European countries.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Craig A. Stroud, Junhua Zhang, Elisa I. Boutzis, Tianchu Zhang, Rabab Mashayekhi, Oumarou Nikiema, Mahtab Majdzadeh, Sumi N. Wren, Xiaohong Xu, Yushan Su
Summary: While transportation emissions have declined, VOC emissions from solvent use applications have increased as urban areas expand. The study uses the Canadian air quality model (GEM-MACH-TEB) to assess the importance of solvent emissions during the Michigan Ontario Ozone Source Experiment (MOOSE). Model predictions are compared to ozone and total mono-substituted aromatics (TOLU) observations collected in Windsor, Ontario.
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Alberto Martilli, Beatriz Sanchez, Jose Luis Santiago, Domingo Rasilla, Gianluca Pappaccogli, Fernando Allende, Fernando Martin, Carlos Roman-Cascon, Carlos Yaguee, Felipe Fernandez
Summary: Accurate simulation of dispersion during wintertime thermal inversions is crucial for understanding the phenomena and improving air quality strategies. This study used WRF with the BEP-BEM scheme to simulate dispersion during a thermal inversion episode in Madrid, Spain. Results showed spatial variability of dispersive conditions, with pollutants accumulating in topographical depressions. Additionally, a simple empirical method for deriving NO2 from NOx concentrations was proposed. The model was also used to derive information useful for air pollution abatement strategies, such as optimizing emissions throughout the diurnal cycle.
ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Erfan Keshavarzian, Ruizhi Jin, Kejun Dong, Kenny C. S. Kwok
Summary: The research indicates that the area around an isolated building can be divided into three emission regions, namely the windward critical emission region, the leeward critical emission region, and the side noncritical emission region. Emissions from the leeward critical emission region have the most significant impact on the building. Additionally, the size of this region is influenced by the building cross-section shape, with circular and curved buildings having a smaller leeward critical emission region compared to chamfered and square buildings.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Nitin K. Singh, Kimberly J. Van Meter, Nandita B. Basu
Summary: Analyses of phosphorus concentrations in more than 370 watersheds of the Great Lakes Basin from 2003 to 2019 suggest widespread increases in soluble reactive phosphorus concentrations, despite often decreasing or non-significant trends in total phosphorus. Small, forested watersheds at higher latitudes are experiencing the largest relative increases in soluble phosphorus concentrations, and winter temperatures are identified as a key driver of concentration trends. The rising soluble phosphorus concentrations, coupled with warming temperatures, may contribute to the increasing frequency and intensity of algal blooms, highlighting the need for management strategies to prevent further water-quality degradation.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Erfan Keshavarzian, Kenny C. S. Kwok, Kejun Dong, Kapil Chauhan, Yu Zhang
Summary: This paper investigates the dispersion of air pollution and the exposure time around a building in turbulent flow using tracer gas techniques. The results show that stagnant air pollution in the wake of the building shields from the wind flow and causes a longer exposure time compared to other regions. The exposure time is longer in the side region than in the windward region, influenced by the flow patterns near the side and windward faces.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Wenlin Li, Xuchu Jiang
Summary: This paper proposes a new neural network structure based on seasonal-trend decomposition and a dependency matrix attention mechanism for predicting air pollutant concentration. Experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms the baseline models in terms of root mean square error and mean absolute percentage error.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Oriane Della-Negra, Aya Esther Kouassi, Jean-Pierre Dutasta, Pierre-Loic Saaidi, Alexandre Martinez
Summary: This study presents the development of a fluorescent molecular cage for the detection of chlordecone in water at environmental concentrations. The method is fast, easy, reproducible, and cost-effective, allowing estimation of chlordecone concentrations over a wide range of levels, including contamination and drinking water limits in the French West Indies.
CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Anna Mota-Bertran, Marc Saez, Germa Coenders
Summary: The study aims to predict air pollutant concentrations in Catalonia, Spain without monitoring stations, using CoDa to study the relative importance of pollutants and combining it with a total pollution indicator for predictions. Results show that the log-ratio between NO2 and O-3 has the highest variance and predictive accuracy.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(2022)