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2020
Energetic particle precipitation is one of the main processes by which the sun influences atmospheric composition and structure. The polar middle atmosphere is chemically disturbed by the precipitation-induced production of nitric oxides (NOx) and hydrogen oxides (HOx) and the associated ozone (O3) loss, but the importance for the dynamics is still debated. The role of precipitating medium energy electrons (MEEs), which are able to penetrate into the mesosphere, has received increased attention, but has only recently begun to be incorporated in chemistry-climate models. We use the NCAR Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) to study the climate impact from MEE precipitation by performing two idealized ensemble experiments under pre-industrial conditions, with and without the MEE forcing, over the period of the solar cycle 23 (only full calendar years, 1997–2007). Each experiment includes 20 11-year ensemble members, total 220 years. Our results indicate a strong month-to-month variability in the dynamical response to MEE throughout the winter period. We find a strengthening of the polar vortex in the northern hemisphere during December, but the signal decays rapidly in the following months. The polar vortex strengthening is likely attributable to planetary wave reduction due to increased zonal symmetries in upper stratospheric ozone heating, initially triggered by MEE-induced NOx advected into the sunlit regions. We also find a similar early winter polar vortex strengthening in the southern hemisphere during June. Changes in mean meridional circulation accompany these anomalous wave forcings, leading to dynamically-induced vertical temperature dipoles at high latitudes. The associated weakening of the stratospheric mean meridional circulation results in an upper stratospheric polar ozone deficit in early winter. This polar cap ozone deficit is strongest in the southern hemisphere and contributes to a polar vortex weakening in late winter, in concert with increased planetary wave forcing. In both hemispheres, the stratospheric polar vortex signal seems to migrate downwards into the troposphere and to the surface.
2020
Social-Environmental Analysis for the Management of Coastal Lagoons in North Africa
This study provides an overview of 11 lagoons in North Africa, from the Atlantic to the Eastern Mediterranean. Lagoons are complex, transitional, coastal zones providing valuable ecosystem services that contribute to the welfare of the human population. The main economic sectors in the lagoons included fishing, shellfish harvesting, and salt and sand extraction, as well as maritime transport. Economic sectors in the areas around the lagoons and in the watershed included agriculture, tourism, recreation, industrial, and urban development. Changes were also identified in land use from reclamation, changes in hydrology, changes in sedimentology from damming, inlet modifications, and coastal engineering. The human activities in and around the lagoons exert multiple pressures on these ecosystems and result in changes in the environment, affecting salinity, dissolved oxygen, and erosion; changes in the ecology, such as loss of biodiversity; and changes in the delivery of valuable ecosystem services. Loss of ecosystem services such as coastal protection and seafood affect human populations that live around the lagoons and depend on them for their livelihood. Adaptive management frameworks for social–ecological systems provide options that support decision makers with science-based knowledge to deliver sustainable development for ecosystems. The framework used to support the decision makers for environmental management of these 11 lagoons is Drivers–Activities–Pressures–State Change–Impact (on Welfare)–Responses (as Measures).
2020
Understanding the drivers and effects of exposure to contaminants such as mercury (Hg) and organochlorine compounds (OCs) in Antarctic wildlife is still limited. Yet, Hg and OCs have known physiological and fitness effects in animals, with consequences on their populations. Here we measured total Hg (a proxy of methyl-Hg) in blood cells and feathers, and 12 OCs (seven polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, and five organochlorine pesticides, OCPs) in plasma of 30 breeding female Antarctic petrels Thalassoica antarctica from one of the largest colonies in Antarctica (Svarthamaren, Dronning Maud Land). This colony is declining and there is poor documentation on the potential role played by contaminants on individual physiology and fitness. Carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope values measured in the females' blood cells and feathers served as proxies of their feeding ecology during the pre-laying (austral spring) and moulting (winter) periods, respectively. We document feather Hg concentrations (mean ± SD, 2.41 ± 0.83 μg g−1 dry weight, dw) for the first time in this species. Blood cell Hg concentrations (1.38 ± 0.43 μg g−1 dw) were almost twice as high as those reported in a recent study, and increased with pre-laying trophic position (blood cell δ15N). Moulting trophic ecology did not predict blood Hg concentrations. PCB concentrations were very low (Σ7PCBs, 0.35 ± 0.31 ng g−1 wet weight, ww). Among OCPs, HCB (1.02 ± 0.36 ng g−1 ww) and p, p’-DDE (1.02 ± 1.49 ng g−1 ww) residues were comparable to those of ecologically-similar polar seabirds, while Mirex residues (0.72 ± 0.35 ng g−1 ww) were higher. PCB and OCP concentrations showed no clear relationship with pre-laying or moulting feeding ecology, indicating that other factors overcome dietary drivers. OC residues were inversely related to body condition, suggesting stronger release of OCs into the circulation of egg-laying females upon depletion of their lipid reserves. Egg volume, hatching success, chick body condition and survival were not related to maternal Hg or OC concentrations. Legacy contaminant exposure does not seem to represent a threat for the breeding fraction of this population over the short term. Yet, exposure to contaminants, especially Mirex, and other concurring environmental stressors should be monitored over the long-term in this declining population.
2020
Dichloromethane (CH2Cl2) and perchloroethylene (C2Cl4) are chlorinated very short lived substances (Cl‐VSLS) with anthropogenic sources. Recent studies highlight the increasing influence of such compounds, particularly CH2Cl2, on the stratospheric chlorine budget and therefore on ozone depletion. Here, a multiyear global‐scale synthesis inversion was performed to optimize CH2Cl2 (2006–2017) and C2Cl4 (2007–2017) emissions. The approach combines long‐term surface observations from global monitoring networks, output from a three‐dimensional chemical transport model (TOMCAT), and novel bottom‐up information on prior industry emissions. Our posterior results show an increase in global CH2Cl2 emissions from 637 ± 36 Gg yr−1 in 2006 to 1,171 ± 45 Gg yr−1 in 2017, with Asian emissions accounting for 68% and 89% of these totals, respectively. In absolute terms, Asian CH2Cl2 emissions increased annually by 51 Gg yr−1 over the study period, while European and North American emissions declined, indicating a continental‐scale shift in emission distribution since the mid‐2000s. For C2Cl4, we estimate a decrease in global emissions from 141 ± 14 Gg yr−1 in 2007 to 106 ± 12 Gg yr−1 in 2017. The time‐varying posterior emissions offer significant improvements over the prior. Utilizing the posterior emissions leads to modeled tropospheric CH2Cl2 and C2Cl4 abundances and trends in good agreement to those observed (including independent observations to the inversion). A shorter C2Cl4 lifetime, from including an uncertain Cl sink, leads to larger global C2Cl4 emissions by a factor of ~1.5, which in some places improves model‐measurement agreement. The sensitivity of our findings to assumptions in the inversion procedure, including CH2Cl2 oceanic emissions, is discussed.
2020
Measurements of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) performed between January and June 2020 at 10 Arctic and subarctic locations are compared with historical observations. Differences between 2020 and prior years are also assessed with total ozone column and UVR data from satellites. Erythemal (sunburning) UVR is quantified with the UV Index (UVI) derived from these measurements. UVI data show unprecedently large anomalies, occurring mostly between early March and mid‐April 2020. For several days, UVIs observed in 2020 exceeded measurements of previous years by up to 140%. Historical means were surpassed by more than six standard deviations at several locations in the Arctic. In northern Canada, the average UVI for March was about 75% larger than usual. UVIs in April 2020 were elevated on average by about 25% at all sites. However, absolute anomalies remained below 3.0 UVI units because the enhancements occurred during times when the solar elevation was still low.
2020
An overview of the uses of per- And polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are of concern because of their high persistence (or that of their degradation products) and their impacts on human and environmental health that are known or can be deduced from some well-studied PFAS. Currently, many different PFAS (on the order of several thousands) are used in a wide range of applications, and there is no comprehensive source of information on the many individual substances and their functions in different applications. Here we provide a broad overview of many use categories where PFAS have been employed and for which function; we also specify which PFAS have been used and discuss the magnitude of the uses. Despite being non-exhaustive, our study clearly demonstrates that PFAS are used in almost all industry branches and many consumer products. In total, more than 200 use categories and subcategories are identified for more than 1400 individual PFAS. In addition to well-known categories such as textile impregnation, fire-fighting foam, and electroplating, the identified use categories also include many categories not described in the scientific literature, including PFAS in ammunition, climbing ropes, guitar strings, artificial turf, and soil remediation. We further discuss several use categories that may be prioritised for finding PFAS-free alternatives. Besides the detailed description of use categories, the present study also provides a list of the identified PFAS per use category, including their exact masses for future analytical studies aiming to identify additional PFAS.
2020
Validation of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) surface UV radiation product
The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) satellite was launched on 13 October 2017 to provide the atmospheric composition for atmosphere and climate research. The S5P is a Sun-synchronous polar-orbiting satellite providing global daily coverage. The TROPOMI swath is 2600 km wide, and the ground resolution for most data products is 7.2×3.5 km2 (5.6×3.5 km2 since 6 August 2019) at nadir. The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) is responsible for the development of the TROPOMI UV algorithm and the processing of the TROPOMI surface ultraviolet (UV) radiation product which includes 36 UV parameters in total. Ground-based data from 25 sites located in arctic, subarctic, temperate, equatorial and Antarctic areas were used for validation of the TROPOMI overpass irradiance at 305, 310, 324 and 380 nm, overpass erythemally weighted dose rate/UV index, and erythemally weighted daily dose for the period from 1 January 2018 to 31 August 2019. The validation results showed that for most sites 60 %–80 % of TROPOMI data was within ±20 % of ground-based data for snow-free surface conditions. The median relative differences to ground-based measurements of TROPOMI snow-free surface daily doses were within ±10 % and ±5 % at two-thirds and at half of the sites, respectively. At several sites more than 90 % of cloud-free TROPOMI data was within ±20 % of ground-based measurements. Generally median relative differences between TROPOMI data and ground-based measurements were a little biased towards negative values (i.e. satellite data < ground-based measurement), but at high latitudes where non-homogeneous topography and albedo or snow conditions occurred, the negative bias was exceptionally high: from −30 % to −65 %. Positive biases of 10 %–15 % were also found for mountainous sites due to challenging topography. The TROPOMI surface UV radiation product includes quality flags to detect increased uncertainties in the data due to heterogeneous surface albedo and rough terrain, which can be used to filter the data retrieved under challenging conditions.
2020
Validation of SMILES HCl profiles over a wide range from the stratosphere to the lower thermosphere
Hydrogen chloride (HCl) is the most abundant (more than 95 %) among inorganic chlorine compounds Cly in the upper stratosphere. The HCl molecule is observed to obtain long-term quantitative estimations of the total budget of the stratospheric chlorine compounds. In this study, we provided HCl vertical profiles at altitudes of 16–100 km using the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) from space. The HCl vertical profile from the upper troposphere to the lower thermosphere is reported for the first time from SMILES observations; the data quality is quantified by comparison with other measurements and via theoretical error analysis. We used the SMILES level-2 research product version 3.0.0. The period of the SMILES HCl observation was from 12 October 2009 to 21 April 2010, and the latitude coverage was 40∘ S–65∘ N. The average HCl vertical profile showed an increase with altitude up to the stratopause (∼ 45 km), approximately constant values between the stratopause and the upper mesosphere (∼ 80 km), and a decrease from the mesopause to the lower thermosphere (∼ 100 km). This behavior was observed in all latitude regions and reproduced by the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model in the specified dynamics configuration (SD-WACCM). We compared the SMILES HCl vertical profiles in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere with HCl profiles from Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the Aura satellite, as well as from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) on SCISAT and the TErahertz and submillimeter LImb Sounder (TELIS) (balloon borne). The TELIS observations were performed using the superconductive limb emission technique, as used by SMILES. The globally averaged vertical HCl profiles of SMILES agreed well with those of MLS and ACE-FTS within 0.25 and 0.2 ppbv between 20 and 40 km (within 10 % between 30 and 40 km; there is a larger discrepancy below 30 km), respectively. The SMILES HCl concentration was smaller than those of MLS and ACE-FTS as the altitude increased from 40 km, and the difference was approximately 0.4–0.5 ppbv (12 %–15 %) at 50–60 km. The difference between SMILES and TELIS HCl observations was about 0.3 ppbv in the polar winter region between 20 and 34 km, except near 26 km. SMILES HCl error sources that may cause discrepancies with the other observations are investigated by a theoretical error analysis. We calculated errors caused by the uncertainties of spectroscopic parameters, instrument functions, and atmospheric temperature profiles. The Jacobian for the temperature explains the negative bias of the SMILES HCl concentrations at 50–60 km.
2020
This work aimed to identify the major source(s) of faecal pollution impacting Salcott Creek oyster fisheries in the UK through the examination of the sterol profiles. The concentration of the major sewage biomarker, coprostanol, in water overlying the oysters varied between 0.01 µg L−1 and 1.20 µg L−1. The coprostanol/epicoprostanol ratio ranged from 1.32 (September) to 33.25 (February), suggesting that human sewage represents the key input of faecal material into the estuary. However, a correlation between the sterol profile of water above the oysters with that of water that enters from Tiptree Sewage Treatment Works (r = 0.82), and a sample from a site (Quinces Corner) observed to have a high population of Brent geese (r = 0.82), suggests that both sources contribute to the faecal pollution affecting the oysters. In identifying these key faecal inputs, sterol profiling has allowed targeted management practices to be employed to ensure that oyster quality is optimised.
2020
The comet assay is a widely used test for the detection of DNA damage and repair activity. However, there are interlaboratory differences in reported levels of baseline and induced damage in the same experimental systems. These differences may be attributed to protocol differences, although it is difficult to identify the relevant conditions because detailed comet assay procedures are not always published. Here, we present a Consensus Statement for the Minimum Information for Reporting Comet Assay (MIRCA) providing recommendations for describing comet assay conditions and results. These recommendations differentiate between ‘desirable’ and ‘essential’ information: ‘essential’ information refers to the precise details that are necessary to assess the quality of the experimental work, whereas ‘desirable’ information relates to technical issues that might be encountered when repeating the experiments. Adherence to MIRCA recommendations should ensure that comet assay results can be easily interpreted and independently verified by other researchers.
2020
Global occurrence, chemical properties, and ecological impacts of e-wastes (IUPAC Technical Report)
The waste stream of obsolete electronic equipment grows exponentially, creating a worldwide pollution and resource problem. Electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) comprises a heterogeneous mix of glass, plastics (including flame retardants and other additives), metals (including rare Earth elements), and metalloids. The e-waste issue is complex and multi-faceted. In examining the different aspects of e-waste, informal recycling in developing countries has been identified as a primary concern, due to widespread illegal shipments; weak environmental, as well as health and safety, regulations; lack of technology; and inadequate waste treatment structure. For example, Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan, and China have all been identified as hotspots for the disposal of e-waste. This article presents a critical examination on the chemical nature of e-waste and the resulting environmental impacts on, for example, microbial biodiversity, flora, and fauna in e-waste recycling sites around the world. It highlights the different types of risk assessment approaches required when evaluating the ecological impact of e-waste. Additionally, it presents examples of chemistry playing a role in potential solutions. The information presented here will be informative to relevant stakeholders seeking to devise integrated management strategies to tackle this global environmental concern.
2020
Estimation of the temporal profile of an atmospheric release, also called the source term, is an important problem in environmental sciences. The problem can be formalized as a linear inverse problem wherein the unknown source term is optimized to minimize the difference between the measurements and the corresponding model predictions. The problem is typically ill-posed due to low sensor coverage of a release and due to uncertainties, e.g., in measurements or atmospheric transport modeling; hence, all state-of-the-art methods are based on some form of regularization of the problem using additional information. We consider two kinds of additional information: the prior source term, also known as the first guess, and regularization parameters for the shape of the source term. While the first guess is based on information independent of the measurements, such as the physics of the potential release or previous estimations, the regularization parameters are often selected by the designers of the optimization procedure. In this paper, we provide a sensitivity study of two inverse methodologies on the choice of the prior source term and regularization parameters of the methods. The sensitivity is studied in two cases: data from the European Tracer Experiment (ETEX) using FLEXPART v8.1 and the caesium-134 and caesium-137 dataset from the Chernobyl accident using FLEXPART v10.3.
2020
Even though production and open use of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been phased out in Western industrialised countries since the 1980s, PCBs were still present in waste collected from different waste handling facilities in Norway in 2013. Sums of seven indicator-PCBs (I-PCB7: PCB-28, -52, -101, -118, -138, -153 and -180) were highest in plastic waste (3700 ±1800 μg/kg, n=15), waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (1300 ± 400 μg/kg, n=12) and fine vehicle fluff (1800 ± 1400 μg/kg, n=4) and lowest in glass waste, combustibles, bottom ash and fly ash (0.3 to 65 μg/kg). Concentrations in leachate water varied from 1.7 to 2900 ng/L, with higher concentrations found at vehicle and WEEE handling facilities. Particles in leachate water exhibited similar PCB sorption properties as solid waste collected on site, with waste-water partitioning coefficients ranging from 105 to 107. I-PCB7 in air samples collected at the sites were mostly in the gas phase (100–24000 pg/m3), compared to those associated with particles (9–1900 pg/m3). In contrast brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in the same samples were predominantly found associated with particles (e.g. sum of 10 brominated diethyl ethers, ΣBDE10, associated with particles 77–194,000 pg/m3) compared to the gas phase (ΣBDE10 6–473 pg/m3). Measured gas-phase I-PCB7 concentrations are less than predicted, assuming waste-air partitioning in equilibrium with predominant waste on site. However, the gas-particle partitioning behavior of PCBs and BFRs could be predicted using an established partitioning model for ambient aerosols. PCB emissions from Norwegian waste handling facilities occurred primarily in the form of atmospheric vapor or leachate particles.
2020
Source Quantification of South Asian Black Carbon Aerosols with Isotopes and Modeling
Black carbon (BC) aerosols perturb climate and impoverish air quality/human health—affecting ∼1.5 billion people in South Asia. However, the lack of source-diagnostic observations of BC is hindering the evaluation of uncertain bottom-up emission inventories (EIs) and thereby also models/policies. Here, we present dual-isotope-based (Δ14C/δ13C) fingerprinting of wintertime BC at two receptor sites of the continental outflow. Our results show a remarkable similarity in contributions of biomass and fossil combustion, both from the site capturing the highly populated highly polluted Indo-Gangetic Plain footprint (IGP; Δ14C-fbiomass = 50 ± 3%) and the second site in the N. Indian Ocean representing a wider South Asian footprint (52 ± 6%). Yet, both sites reflect distinct δ13C-fingerprints, indicating a distinguishable contribution of C4-biomass burning from peninsular India (PI). Tailored-model-predicted season-averaged BC concentrations (700 ± 440 ng m–3) match observations (740 ± 250 ng m–3), however, unveiling a systematically increasing model-observation bias (+19% to −53%) through winter. Inclusion of BC from open burning alone does not reconcile predictions (fbiomass = 44 ± 8%) with observations. Direct source-segregated comparison reveals regional offsets in anthropogenic emission fluxes in EIs, overestimated fossil-BC in the IGP, and underestimated biomass-BC in PI, which contributes to the model-observation bias. This ground-truthing pinpoints uncertainties in BC emission sources, which benefit both climate/air-quality modeling and mitigation policies in South Asia.
2020
Thousands of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exist in the environment and pose a potential health hazard. Suspect and nontarget screening with liquid chromatography (LC)–high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HRMS/MS) can be used for comprehensive characterization of PFAS. To date, no automated open source PFAS data analysis software exists to mine these extensive data sets. We introduce FluoroMatch, which automates file conversion, chromatographic peak picking, blank feature filtering, PFAS annotation based on precursor and fragment masses, and annotation ranking. The software library currently contains ∼7 000 PFAS fragmentation patterns based on rules derived from standards and literature, and the software automates a process for users to add additional compounds. The use of intelligent data-acquisition methods (iterative exclusion) nearly doubled the number of annotations. The software application is demonstrated by characterizing PFAS in landfill leachate as well as in leachate foam generated to concentrate the compounds for remediation purposes. FluoroMatch had wide coverage, returning 27 PFAS annotations for landfill leachate samples, explaining 71% of the all-ion fragmentation (CF2)n related fragments. By improving the throughput and coverage of PFAS annotation, FluoroMatch will accelerate the discovery of PFAS posing significant human risk.
2020
The quality and relevance of nanosafety studies constitute major challenges to ensure their key role as a supporting tool in sustainable innovation, and subsequent competitive economic advantage. However, the number of apparently contradictory and inconclusive research results has increased in the past few years, indicating the need to introduce harmonized protocols and good practices in the nanosafety research community. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate if best-practice training and inter-laboratory comparison (ILC) of performance of the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium (MTS) assay for the cytotoxicity assessment of nanomaterials among 15 European laboratories can improve quality in nanosafety testing. We used two well-described model nanoparticles, 40-nm carboxylated polystyrene (PS-COOH) and 50-nm amino-modified polystyrene (PS-NH2). We followed a tiered approach using well-developed standard operating procedures (SOPs) and sharing the same cells, serum and nanoparticles. We started with determination of the cell growth rate (tier 1), followed by a method transfer phase, in which all laboratories performed the first ILC on the MTS assay (tier 2). Based on the outcome of tier 2 and a survey of laboratory practices, specific training was organized, and the MTS assay SOP was refined. This led to largely improved intra- and inter-laboratory reproducibility in tier 3. In addition, we confirmed that PS-COOH and PS-NH2 are suitable negative and positive control nanoparticles, respectively, to evaluate impact of nanomaterials on cell viability using the MTS assay. Overall, we have demonstrated that the tiered process followed here, with the use of SOPs and representative control nanomaterials, is necessary and makes it possible to achieve good inter-laboratory reproducibility, and therefore high-quality nanotoxicological data.
2020
Air quality mitigation in European cities: Status and challenges ahead
Cities are currently at the core of air quality (AQ) improvement. The present work provides an overview of AQ management strategies and outcomes in 10 European cities (Antwerp, Berlin, Dublin, Madrid, Malmö, Milan, Paris, Plovdiv, Prague, Vienna) in 2018, and their evolution since 2013 (same cities, plus Ploiesti and Vilnius), based on first-hand input from AQ managers. The status of AQ mitigation in 2018, and its evolution since 2013, were assessed. While results evidenced that the majority of mitigation strategies targeted road traffic, emerging sources such as inland shipping, construction/demolition and recreational wood burning were identified. Several cities had in 2018 the ambition to continue decreasing air pollution concentrations to meet WHO guidelines, an ambition which had not yet been identified in 2013. Specific needs identified by all of the cities assessed were tools to quantify the effectiveness of mitigation strategies and for cost-benefit analysis, as well as specific and up to date technical guidance on real-world road vehicle emissions. The cities also requested guidance to identify mitigation measures promoting co-benefits, e.g., in terms of AQ, climate change, and noise. Support from administrations at local-regional-national-EU scales, and especially involving local policy-makers early on in the air quality management process, was considered essential. This work provides insight into the drivers of successful/unsuccessful AQ policies as well as on the challenges faced during their implementation. We identify knowledge gaps and provide input to the research and policy-making communities as to specific needs of cities.
2020
Estimation of damage cost to building facades per kilo emission of air pollution in Norway
This work reports marginal damage costs to façades due to air pollution exposure estimated “bottom up,” for Norway and Oslo (Norway) by the use of exposure response functions (ERFs) and impact pathway analysis from the emission to the deteriorating impact. The aim of the work was to supply cost estimates that could be compared with reported damage costs to health, agriculture, and ecosystems, and that could be used in cost-benefit analysis by environmental authorities. The marginal damage costs for cleaning, repair, and in total (cleaning + repair) were found to be, in Norway: eight, two, and 10, respectively, and for a traffic situation in Oslo: 50 (77), 50 (28), and 100 (105), (×/÷ 2.5) Euro/kg emission of PM10, SO2, and NO2 in total. For Oslo, the values represent a recorded façade materials inventory for 17–18th century buildings, and in the brackets the same façade inventory as for Norway. In total, 5–10% of the marginal damage cost was found to be due to NO2. The total marginal cost was found to be shared about equally between the impact of PM10 and SO2 in Norway (50 and 42% of the impact) and for the 17–18th century buildings in Oslo (45% and 49% of the impact), but for a similar façade materials inventory in Oslo as Norway, the total marginal cost due to PM10 was about two-thirds and that due to SO2 about one-third of the total, with about 5% of the cost still being due to NO2. The division of the costs between the separate pollutant influences on the cleaning and repair was, however, found to be significantly different in Norway and Oslo. In Norway, about 60% of the marginal cleaning cost was found to be due to PM10, 30% due to SO2, and 10% due to NO2. In Oslo, about 85% of the marginal cleaning costs were found to be due to PM10, 10% due to SO2, and 5% due to NO2. For the marginal repair cost, the opposite situation was found, in both Norway and Oslo, with 80–90% of the cost being due to SO2, 5–10% being due to PM10, and 5–10% due to NO2. As other factors than air pollution deteriorates façades and influences maintenance decisions, the expenses that can be attributed to the air pollution could be significantly lower.
2020
Large-eddy simulation (LES) experiments have been performed using the Parallelized LES Model (PALM). A methodology for validating and understanding LES results for plume dispersion and concentration fluctuations in an atmospheric-like flow is presented. A wide range of grid resolutions is shown to be necessary for investigating the convergence of statistical characteristics of velocity and scalar fields. For the scalar, the statistical moments up to the fourth order and the shape of the concentration probability density function (p.d.f.) are examined. The mean concentration is influenced by grid resolution, with the highest resolution simulation showing a lower mean concentration, linked to larger turbulent structures. However, a clear tendency to convergence of the concentration variance is observed at the two higher resolutions. This behaviour is explained by showing that the mechanisms driving the mean and the variance are differently influenced by the grid resolution. The analysis of skewness and kurtosis allows also the obtaining of general results on plume concentration fluctuations. Irrespective of grid resolution, a family of Gamma p.d.f.s well represents the shape of the concentration p.d.f. but only beyond the peak of the concentration fluctuation intensity. In the early plume dispersion phases, the moments of the p.d.f. are in good agreement with those generated by a fluctuating plume model. To the best of our knowledge, our study demonstrates for the first time that, if resolution and averaging time are adequate, atmospheric LES provides a trustworthy representation of the high order moments of the concentration field, up to the fourth order, for a dispersing plume.
2020
Understanding nanomaterial (NM)–protein interactions is a key issue in defining the bioreactivity of NMs with great impact for nanosafety. In the present work, the complex phenomena occurring at the bio/nano interface were evaluated in a simple case study focusing on NM–protein binding thermodynamics and protein stability for three representative metal oxide NMs, namely, zinc oxide (ZnO; NM-110), titanium dioxide (TiO2; NM-101), and silica (SiO2; NM-203). The thermodynamic signature associated with the NM interaction with an abundant protein occurring in most cell culture media, bovine serum albumin (BSA), has been investigated by isothermal titration and differential scanning calorimetry. Circular dichroism spectroscopy offers additional information concerning adsorption-induced protein conformational changes. The BSA adsorption onto NMs is enthalpy-controlled, with the enthalpic character (favorable interaction) decreasing as follows: ZnO (NM-110) > SiO2 (NM-203) > TiO2 (NM-101). The binding of BSA is spontaneous, as revealed by the negative free energy, ΔG, for all systems. The structural stability of the protein decreased as follows: TiO2 (NM-101) > SiO2 (NM-203) > ZnO (NM-110). As protein binding may alter NM reactivity and thus the toxicity, we furthermore assessed its putative influence on DNA damage, as well as on the expression of target genes for cell death (RIPK1, FAS) and oxidative stress (SOD1, SOD2, CAT, GSTK1) in the A549 human alveolar basal epithelial cell line. The enthalpic component of the BSA–NM interaction, corroborated with BSA structural stability, matched the ranking for the biological alterations, i.e., DNA strand breaks, oxidized DNA lesions, cell-death, and antioxidant gene expression in A549 cells. The relative and total content of BSA in the protein corona was determined using mass-spectrometry-based proteomics. For the present case study, the thermodynamic parameters at bio/nano interface emerge as key descriptors for the dominant contributions determining the adsorption processes and NMs toxicological effect.
2020
As part of the ongoing key comparison BIPM.QM-K1, a comparison has been performed between the ozone standard of Norway maintained by the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) and the common reference standard of the key comparison, maintained by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). The instruments have been compared over a nominal ozone amount-of-substance fraction range from 0 nmol/mol to 500 nmol/mol.
2020
In the beginning of April 2020, large fires that started in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) established after the Chernobyl accident in 1986 caused media and public concerns about the health impact from the resuspended radioactivity. In this paper, the emissions of previously deposited radionuclides from these fires are assessed and their dispersion and impact on the population is examined relying on the most recent data on radioactive contamination and emission factors combined with satellite observations. About 341 GBq of 137Cs, 51 GBq of 90Sr, 2 GBq of 238Pu, 33 MBq of 239Pu, 66 MBq of 240Pu and 504 MBq of 241Am were released in 1st–22nd April 2020 or about 1,000,000,000 times lower than the original accident in 1986 and mostly distributed in Central and East Europe. The large size of biomass burning particles carrying radionuclides prevents long-range transport as confirmed by concentrations reported in Europe. The highest cumulative effective doses (> 15 μSv) were calculated for firefighters and the population living in the CEZ, while doses were much lower in Kiev (2–5 μSv) and negligible in Belarus, Russia and Europe. All doses are radiologically insignificant and no health impact o
2020
Apex predators are characterized by high levels of biomagnifying organohalogenated contaminants (OHCs) which have been found to induce detrimental health effects in wildlife, such as immune system impairment. The leukocyte coping capacity (LCC) assay is a functional real-time measure of an innate immune response essential in pathogen resistance, known as the respiratory burst. The current study suggests the novel use of this tool to test whether OHCs impair the innate immune system of a sentinel top predator, the white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla; WTE). The LCC analysis was performed in the field on WTE nestlings (n = 84) from northern Norway over two breeding seasons. Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) dominated the total OHC load, surpassing the levels of legacy organochlorines. In addition, we detected significant negative correlations between concentrations of all polychlorinated biphenyls, p,p′-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid and long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids and the LCC of WTE nestlings. Based on our current findings reflecting a potential negative effect of both emerging and legacy OHCs on innate immune capacity, we suggest LCC to be a relevant and accessible test expanding the ecotoxicological toolbox to assess sub-lethal effects of OHCs in apex avian wildlife.
2020
The response of the atmosphere to solar irradiance and geomagnetic activity is analyzed in experiments with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) under idealized forcings. Four experiments are carried out combining high (H) and low (L) solar radiative forcing with high (7) and low (3) geomagnetic activity: H7 (with high radiative forcing and high geomagnetic activity), H3, (high/low), L7 (low/high), and L3 (low/low). The comparison between these experiment is used to assess the effects of solar radiative forcing and geomagnetic activity mainly on the stratosphere. A two-step Monte Carlo-based statistical test, which defines an impact score, is used to assess statistically significant impacts on regional scales, on pressure levels, for a few key model variables, like NOx, ozone, and temperature.
Under low solar forcing (L7/L3), a statistically significant relationship between geomagnetic activity and NOx is found in both hemispheres and for all seasons. An equally strong relationship is lacking for ozone and temperature when analyzing these fields on isobaric levels. A statistically significant impact on stratospheric ozone is only seen in austral winter and spring. However, vertical cross sections show statistically significant impact on temperature and ozone mainly in the southern hemisphere (SH) during austral winter and the following spring.
Significant and persistent signals in both SH NOx and ozone concentrations are only produced when the effect of high solar forcing is added to high geomagnetic activity (H7). In this case, statistically significant differences are also found for mesospheric temperatures, ozone and NOx. This latter result appears also under low geomagnetic activity as a result of solar forcing alone, suggesting that solar irradiance significantly affects NOx, ozone and stratospheric temperatures and, in some seasons, even tropospheric temperature.
In summary, geomagnetic activity primarily affects NOx and ozone concentrations in the SH. Solar maximum conditions can reduce the amount of NOx in the stratosphere because of higher ozone production. Thus, we conclude that correlations between changes in solar irradiance and geomagnetic activity are important with respect to their effects on the atmosphere. In particular, geomagnetic activity can modulate atmospheric ozone concentrations and other associated stratospheric and tropospheric variables under conditions of high solar activity.
2020