Challenges In Environmental Science Research Articles

Plasmonic Particle Integration into Near-Infrared Photodetectors and Photoactivated Gas Sensors: Toward Sustainable Next-Generation Ubiquitous Sensing.

Current challenges in environmental science, medicine, food chemistry as well as the emerging use of artificial intelligence for solving problems in these fields require distributed, local sensing. Such ubiquitous sensing requires components with 1) high sensitivity, 2) power efficiency, 3) miniaturizability, and 4) the ability to directly interface with electronic circuitry, i.e., electronic readout of sensing signals. Over the recent years, several nanoparticle-based approaches have found their way into this field and have demonstrated high performance. However, challenges remain, such as the toxicity of many of today's narrow bandgap semiconductors for NIR detection and the high energy consumption as well as low selectivity of state-of-the-art commercialized gas sensors. With their unique light-matter interaction and ink-based fabrication schemes, plasmonic nanostructures provide potential technological solutions to these challenges, leading also to better environmental performance. In this perspective recent approaches of using plasmonic nanoparticles are discussed for the fabrication of NIR photodetectors and light-activated, energy-efficient gas sensing devices. In addition, new strategies implying computational approaches are pointed out for miniaturizable spectrometers, exploiting the wide spectral tunability of plasmonic nanocomposites, and for selective gas sensors, utilizing dynamic light activation. The benefits of colloidal approaches for device fabrication are discussed with regard to technological advantages and environmental aspects, which are barely considered so far.

Discussion: Embracing microfluidics to advance environmental science and technology

Microfluidics, also called lab-on-a-chip, represents an emerging research platform that permits more precise and manipulation of samples at the microscale or even down to the nanoscale (nanofluidic) including picoliter droplets, microparticles, and microbes within miniaturized and highly integrated devices. This groundbreaking technology has made significant strides across multiple disciplines by providing an unprecedented view of physical, chemical, and biological events, fostering a holistic and an in-depth understanding of complex systems. The application of microfluidics to address the challenges in environmental science is likely to contribute to our better understanding, however, it's not yet fully developed. To raise researchers' interest, this discussion first delineates the valuable and underutilized environmental applications of microfluidic technology, ranging from environmental surveillance to acting as microreactors for investigating interfacial dynamic processes, and facilitating high-throughput bioassays. We highlight, with examples, how rationally designed microfluidic devices lead to new insights into the advancement of environmental science and technology. We then critically review the key challenges that hinder the practical adoption of microfluidic technologies. Specifically, we discuss the extent to which microfluidics accurately reflect realistic environmental scenarios, outline the areas to be improved, and propose strategies to overcome bottlenecks that impede the broad application of microfluidics. We also envision new opportunities and future research directions, aiming to provide guidelines for the broader utilization of microfluidics in environmental studies.

Detection limit of next-generation of multi-element germanium detectors in the context of Environmental science

One of the main challenges in Environmental sciences is the identification and chemical evolution of polluting traces (e.g, cadmium or antimony) in soil, which requires long acquistion times for accurate measurements at synchrotron facilities. In this context, the potential of a new generation multi-element germanium detectors to identify traces at 0.1-1 ppm in a reasonable time has been studied using Allpix Squared framework [1]. This code has been customized to include the three dimensional electric and weighting field maps generated by COMSOL Multiphysics software, and several features to model the sample environment at SOLEIL synchrotron and the signal response of a germanium detector equipped with a Digital Pulse Processor (DPP). The full simulation chain has been validated by experimental data from SAMBA beamline of SOLEIL synchrotron. This work presents a first estimation of the detection limit to cadmium traces in a soil sample for a future multi-element germanium detector, using this simulation chain.

Spatio-Temporal Representativeness of Air Quality Monitoring Stations in Mexico City: Implications for Public Health.

Assessment of the air quality in metropolitan areas is a major challenge in environmental sciences. Issues related include the distribution of monitoring stations, their spatial range, or missing information. In Mexico City, stations have been located spanning the entire Metropolitan zone for pollutants, such as CO, NO2, O3, SO2, PM2.5, PM10, NO, NOx, and PMCO. A fundamental question is whether the number and location of such stations are adequate to optimally cover the city. By analyzing spatio-temporal correlations for pollutant measurements, we evaluated the distribution and performance of monitoring stations in Mexico City from 2009 to 2018. Based on our analysis, air quality evaluation of those contaminants is adequate to cover the 16 boroughs of Mexico City, with the exception of SO2, since its spatial range is shorter than the one needed to cover the whole surface of the city. We observed that NO and NOx concentrations must be taken into account since their long-range dispersion may have relevant consequences for public health. With this approach, we may be able to propose policy based on systematic criteria to locate new monitoring stations.

Genetically modified Caenorhabditis elegans may lead to inaccurate toxicity evaluation of mixtures

BackgroundOne of the major challenges in environmental science is how to assess the toxicity and risk of complex pollutant mixtures. However, only a few studies have pointed out that there is a significant difference between the toxicities of chemicals on genetically modified strains and wild-type organisms and there are few reports of the differences in the toxicity of chemical mixtures. Therefore, six chemicals, two substituted phenols (4-chlorophenol and 4-nitrophenol), two pesticides (dichlorvos and glyphosate) and two ionic liquids (1-butylpyridinium chloride and 1-butylpyridinium bromide), were selected to construct a six-component mixture system, the lethality of various mixtures on the genetically modified Caenorhabditis elegans strain mtl-2::GFP (MTL-2) at 12 and 24 h were determined, and differences in toxicity to other strains were compared.ResultsAlthough the toxicity of 4-chlorophenol on MTL-2 was not significantly different from that on N2 wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans (N2), the toxicities of the other five chemicals on MTL-2 were greater than those on N2. The toxicities of six single chemicals and nine mixture rays on MTL-2 increased with time, which is consistent with the effect on N2 and on the genetically modified strain sod-3::GFP Caenorhabditis elegans (SOD-3). The toxicological interactions of various mixtures in MTL-2 at 12 h were half antagonistic (ANT) and half additive (ADD), while at 24 h, they were mainly synergistic (SYN). The toxicological interactions of various mixtures in MTL-2 change from ANT/ADD to primarily SYN with time, which is different from the change from ANT to ADD in SOD-3 and from SYN to ADD in N2.ConclusionsThe toxicity and toxicity interactions of chemical mixtures on different Caenorhabditis elegans strains are different. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the effect of genetic factors on the toxicological interaction of mixtures to avoid underestimating or overestimating the mixture risk.

Recent advances in analysis of trace elements in environmental samples by X-ray based techniques (IUPAC Technical Report).

Trace elements analysis is a fundamental challenge in environmental sciences. Scientists measure trace elements in environmental media in order to assess the quality and safety of ecosystems and to quantify the burden of anthropogenic pollution. Among the available analytical techniques, X-ray based methods are particularly powerful, as they can quantify trace elements in situ. Chemical extraction is not required, as is the case for many other analytical techniques. In the last few years, the potential for X-ray techniques to be applied in the environmental sciences has dramatically increased due to developments in laboratory instruments and synchrotron radiation facilities with improved sensitivity and spatial resolution. In this report, we summarize the principles of the X-ray based analytical techniques most frequently employed to study trace elements in environmental samples. We report on the most recent developments in laboratory and synchrotron techniques, as well as advances in instrumentation, with a special attention on X-ray sources, detectors, and optics. Lastly, we inform readers on recent applications of X-ray based analysis to different environmental matrices, such as soil, sediments, waters, wastes, living organisms, geological samples, and atmospheric particulate, and we report examples of sample preparation.

Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering, CESE–2016

Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering, CESE–2016

Benchmarking Water Quality from Wastewater to Drinking Waters Using Reduced Transcriptome of Human Cells.

One of the major challenges in environmental science is monitoring and assessing the risk of complex environmental mixtures. In vitro bioassays with limited key toxicological end points have been shown to be suitable to evaluate mixtures of organic pollutants in wastewater and recycled water. Omics approaches such as transcriptomics can monitor biological effects at the genome scale. However, few studies have applied omics approach in the assessment of mixtures of organic micropollutants. Here, an omics approach was developed for profiling bioactivity of 10 water samples ranging from wastewater to drinking water in human cells by a reduced human transcriptome (RHT) approach and dose-response modeling. Transcriptional expression of 1200 selected genes were measured by an Ampliseq technology in two cell lines, HepG2 and MCF7, that were exposed to eight serial dilutions of each sample. Concentration-effect models were used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and to calculate effect concentrations (ECs) of DEGs, which could be ranked to investigate low dose response. Furthermore, molecular pathways disrupted by different samples were evaluated by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. The ability of RHT for representing bioactivity utilizing both HepG2 and MCF7 was shown to be comparable to the results of previous in vitro bioassays. Finally, the relative potencies of the mixtures indicated by RHT analysis were consistent with the chemical profiles of the samples. RHT analysis with human cells provides an efficient and cost-effective approach to benchmarking mixture of micropollutants and may offer novel insight into the assessment of mixture toxicity in water.

Special Issue – Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering

Special Issue – Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering

Season Spotter: Using Citizen Science to Validate and Scale Plant Phenology from Near-Surface Remote Sensing

The impact of a rapidly changing climate on the biosphere is an urgent area of research for mitigation policy and management. Plant phenology is a sensitive indicator of climate change and regulates the seasonality of carbon, water, and energy fluxes between the land surface and the climate system, making it an important tool for studying biosphere–atmosphere interactions. To monitor plant phenology at regional and continental scales, automated near-surface cameras are being increasingly used to supplement phenology data derived from satellite imagery and data from ground-based human observers. We used imagery from a network of phenology cameras in a citizen science project called Season Spotter to investigate whether information could be derived from these images beyond standard, color-based vegetation indices. We found that engaging citizen science volunteers resulted in useful science knowledge in three ways: first, volunteers were able to detect some, but not all, reproductive phenology events, connecting landscape-level measures with field-based measures. Second, volunteers successfully demarcated individual trees in landscape imagery, facilitating scaling of vegetation indices from organism to ecosystem. And third, volunteers’ data were used to validate phenology transition dates calculated from vegetation indices and to identify potential improvements to existing algorithms to enable better biological interpretation. As a result, the use of citizen science in combination with near-surface remote sensing of phenology can be used to link ground-based phenology observations to satellite sensor data for scaling and validation. Well-designed citizen science projects targeting improved data processing and validation of remote sensing imagery hold promise for providing the data needed to address grand challenges in environmental science and Earth observation.

Special issue on the Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering, CESE-2012: September 9–13, 2012, Melbourne, Australia

Special issue on the Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering, CESE-2012: September 9–13, 2012, Melbourne, Australia

Erratum to: Special issue on the 4th International Conference on the “Challenges in Environmental Science & Engineering”, CESE-2011: solutions to environmental challenges through the application of advanced technologies

Erratum to: Special issue on the 4th International Conference on the “Challenges in Environmental Science & Engineering”, CESE-2011: solutions to environmental challenges through the application of advanced technologies

Past, Present, and Future Roles of Long-Term Experiments in the LTER Network

The US National Science Foundation—funded Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network supports a large (around 240) and diverse portfolio of long-term ecological experiments. Collectively, these long-term experiments have (a) provided unique insights into ecological patterns and processes, although such insight often became apparent only after many years of study; (b) influenced management and policy decisions; and (c) evolved into research platforms supporting studies and involving investigators who were not part of the original design. Furthermore, this suite of long-term experiments addresses, at the site level, all of the US National Research Council's Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences. Despite these contributions, we argue that the scale and scope of global environmental change requires a more-coordinated multisite approach to long-term experiments. Ideally, such an approach would include a network of spatially extensive multifactor experiments, designed in collaboration with ecological mod...

Special issue on the 4th International Conference on the “Challenges in Environmental Science & Engineering”, CESE-2011: solutions to environmental challenges through the application of advanced technologies

‘‘Challenges in Environmental Science & Engineering’’, CESE International Conference Series is an annual event initiated by Associate Professor Jega V. Jegatheesan and Dr. Li Shu both of whom are currently attached to Deakin University, Australia. Researchers, policy-makers, academics, students and the broader community active in contributing solutions to the myriad of environmental questions posed by the challenges facing environmental sustainability are the consistent participants of CESE series. ‘‘Challenges in Environmental Science & Engineering’’, CESE International Conference Series is an annual event initiated by Associate Professor Jega V. Jegatheesan and Dr. Li Shu both of whom are currently attached to Deakin University, Australia. Researchers, policy-makers, academics, students and the broader community active in contributing solutions to the myriad of environmental questions posed by the challenges facing environmental sustainability are the consistent participants of CESE series. The CESE Series aims at making significant contribution to ‘‘Sustainable Growth’’ and this could only be possible if scientists and engineers were worked together. This will pave way for further interactions with other stakeholders who are as important as the previous two to find ways for complete solutions. Sustainable growth could only be achieved if the complex interactions among many processes were understood and the sustainability is considered simultaneously in all those processes. Sustainability of fresh water and other resources as well as energy should be emphasized for sustainable growth. Better management of catchments and cleaner production are important criteria for the sustainability of fresh water and other resources. Sustainability of energy depends on innovative applications of renewable energy sources. In this special issue, two advanced technologies namely membranes and nano-particles are highlighted through some of their specific applications. Membranes are used for separations of solid–liquid, liquid– liquid, liquid–gas and gas–gas phases. Membranes are mainly characterized by their pore sizes and applied pressures. Type of material will also play a significant role in their applications. For example, separation at high temperatures will need membrane materials that V. Jegatheesan (&) L. Shu School of Engineering, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia e-mail: jega.j@deakin.edu.au

Diverse Challenges Faced in Developing Sustainable Catchments

The second conference on the “Challenges in Environmental Science & Engineering” series CESE-2009 was held at Jupiters Hotel, Townsville, Australia from the 14th to the 17th of July 2009. The conference brought together internationally renowned engineers, scientists, and researchers in the fields such as sustainability, water reuse, renewable energy, public health, and biotechnology to discuss the environmental challenges that the world is facing today and into the future. The conference had parallel presentation sessions for two full days that dealt with coastal processes and the Great Barrier Reef, catchment management, water quality, membranes, wastewater treatment, storm water management, reuse, sustainability, and bioprocess technology. The guest editors of this special issue are thankful to the Chief Editor of Water, Air & Soil Pollution: Focus for providing an opportunity to publish selected papers that were presented at CESE-2009 after peer review.

1st Young Environmental Scientists (YES) Meeting—New challenges in environmental sciences

1st Young Environmental Scientists (YES) Meeting—New challenges in environmental sciences

The Science of Global Soil Change: Networking for Our Future: Global Soil Change Workshop; Duke University and Center for Environmental Farming Systems, Durham and Goldsboro, North Carolina, 10–13 December 2007

Some of the most important scientific questions today concern the future of Earth's soil. Understanding the biological, ecological, chemical, and physical processes governing soil functions is directly related to most if not all of the grand challenges in environmental science outlined by the National Academies (Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences, National Research Council, 2001). Because of the inherently long‐term nature of soil change, addressing these questions requires research over decadal timescales. This feature of soil science presents significant challenges to those designing and implementing research programs, and yet is critical to the understanding of soil systems and the improvement of land management.

Integrated Measures of Anthropogenic Stress in the U.S. Great Lakes Basin

Integrated, quantitative expressions of anthropogenic stress over large geographic regions can be valuable tools in environmental research and management. Despite the fundamental appeal of a regional approach, development of regional stress measures remains one of the most important current challenges in environmental science. Using publicly available, pre-existing spatial datasets, we developed a geographic information system database of 86 variables related to five classes of anthropogenic stress in the U.S. Great Lakes basin: agriculture, atmospheric deposition, human population, land cover, and point source pollution. The original variables were quantified by a variety of data types over a broad range of spatial and classification resolutions. We summarized the original data for 762 watershed-based units that comprise the U.S. portion of the basin and then used principal components analysis to develop overall stress measures within each stress category. We developed a cumulative stress index by combining the first principal component from each of the five stress categories. Maps of the stress measures illustrate strong spatial patterns across the basin, with the greatest amount of stress occurring on the western shore of Lake Michigan, southwest Lake Erie, and southeastern Lake Ontario. We found strong relationships between the stress measures and characteristics of bird communities, fish communities, and water chemistry measurements from the coastal region. The stress measures are taken to represent the major threats to coastal ecosystems in the U.S. Great Lakes. Such regional-scale efforts are critical for understanding relationships between human disturbance and ecosystem response, and can be used to guide environmental decision-making at both regional and local scales.

Going wild: what a global small-animal tracking system could do for experimental biologists

Tracking animals over large temporal and spatial scales has revealed invaluable and spectacular biological information, particularly when the paths and fates of individuals can be monitored on a global scale. However, only large animals (greater than approximately 300 g) currently can be followed globally because of power and size constraints on the tracking devices. And yet the vast majority of animals is small. Tracking small animals is important because they are often part of evolutionary and ecological experiments, they provide important ecosystem services and they are of conservation concern or pose harm to human health. Here, we propose a small-animal satellite tracking system that would enable the global monitoring of animals down to the size of the smallest birds, mammals (bats), marine life and eventually large insects. To create the scientific framework necessary for such a global project, we formed the ICARUS initiative (www.IcarusInitiative.org), the International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space. ICARUS also highlights how small-animal tracking could address some of the ;Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences' identified by the US National Academy of Sciences, such as the spread of infectious diseases or the relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem functioning. Small-animal tracking would allow the quantitative assessment of dispersal and migration in natural populations and thus help solve enigmas regarding population dynamics, extinctions and invasions. Experimental biologists may find a global small-animal tracking system helpful in testing, validating and expanding laboratory-derived discoveries in wild, natural populations. We suggest that the relatively modest investment into a global small-animal tracking system will pay off by providing unprecedented insights into both basic and applied nature. Tracking small animals over large spatial and temporal scales could prove to be one of the most powerful techniques of the early 21st century, offering potential solutions to a wide range of biological and societal questions that date back two millennia to the Greek philosopher Aristotle's enigma about songbird migration. Several of the more recent Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences, such as the regulation and functional consequences of biological diversity or the surveillance of the population ecology of zoonotic hosts, pathogens or vectors, could also be addressed by a global small-animal tracking system. Our discussion is intended to contribute to an emerging groundswell of scientific support to make such a new technological system happen.

Biodiversity in Critical Transition Zones between Terrestrial, Freshwater, and Marine Soils and Sediments: Processes, Linkages, and Management Implications

The boundaries between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and particularly the interfaces among soils, freshwater sediments, and marine sediments, are known as “critical transition zones” (CTZs). These interfaces are critically important because they are dynamic habitats that control or influence the movement of organisms, nutrients, materials, and energy within and across landscapes through linked ecosystem processes. They are therefore not only vital to local processes within the transition habitat itself but also have significant effects on adjacent ecosystems. The papers in this volume by Bardgett and others (2001), Levin and others (2001), and Ewel and others (2001) are the results of an international workshop convened by the Committee on Soil and Sediment Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning of the Scientific Committee on Problems in the Environment (SCOPE) to address the following topics: (a) biodiversity in the soils and sediments of CTZs, (b) the ecosystem processes that occur within these zones, (c) CTZs as pathways connecting adjacent ecosystems, and (d) the implications for the management for these habitats. Levin and others survey marine interfaces (estuaries, coastal wetlands), whereas Bardgett and others discuss terrestrial interfaces (that is, the zones between land and both fresh and marine waters). Ewel and colleagues offer a consideration of the management and restoration challenges faced by scientists and managers today, with emphasis on the need for greater collaborative efforts by all interested parties. The papers presented here reflect the current thinking on a subset of all existing types of critical transition zones. There are many other types of transition zones that are not covered in this issue (riparian zones, freshwater wetlands, and so on); however, the issues of concern raised by these authors for marine and terrestrial CTZs are analogous. It is our hope that this strict focus on the problems of marine and terrestrial CTZs will serve to stimulate the study of more diverse types of CTZs. It is particularly important that future work address land–water interfaces because of the many urgent environmental problems that are centered there. For example, the recently released National Research Council report Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences (NRC 2000) cited water resources, land-use dynamics, and biodiversity among its list of the most pressing areas for environmental research today. Of particular concern is our need to understand how changes in the landscape affect water supplies and the flow of sediments to rivers Received 14 March 2001; accepted 16 March 2001. *Corresponding author; e-mail: diana@nrel.colostate.edu Ecosystems (2001) 4: 418–420 DOI: 10.1007/s10021-001-0103-3 ECOSYSTEMS