Search results for "Environmental monitoring"
showing 10 items of 609 documents
Case study: inorganic pollutants associated with particulate matter from an area near a petrochemical plant.
2004
The area of Gela (Sicily, Italy) contains one of the largest petroleum refineries in Europe and also has several oil fields both on land and offshore. This paper discusses how the oil refinery and traffic-related air pollution affect the chemical composition of airborne particulate matter over the town of Gela, using pine needles and urban road dust as the means of survey. Forty-one samples of pine needles from Pinus halepensis (Mill.) and two composite samples of roadway dust, each subdivided into six size fractions, were analyzed for major and trace elements. Information on the natural or anthropogenic origin of the observed heavy metals was deduced from factor analysis and element distri…
Desalination effluents and the establishment of the non-indigenous skeleton shrimp Paracaprella pusilla Mayer, 1890 in the south -eastern Mediterrane…
2019
A decade long monitoring programme has revealed a flourishing population of the non-indigenous skeleton shrimp Paracaprella pusilla in the vicinity of outfalls of desalination plants off the Mediterranean coast of Israel. The first specimens were collected in 2010, thus predating all previously published records of this species in the Mediterranean Sea. A decade-long disturbance regime related to the construction and operation of the plants may have had a critical role in driving the population growth. University of Palermo FFR 2018
Volatile dimethylsiloxanes in market seafood and freshwater fish from the Xúquer River, Spain
2016
Abstract Volatile dimethylsiloxanes are a family of synthetic organosilicon-compounds, which have received rising attention because of their widespread use and occurrence in the environment. In the present work, an analytical method based on ultrasound-assisted solid–liquid extraction (USAE) followed by gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS) has been optimized and applied to assess the presence of eight volatile dimethyl siloxanes (VMS) (hexamethylcyclotrisiloxane (D3), octamethylcyclotetra-siloxane (D4), decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D6), octamethyltrisiloxane (MDM), decamethyltetrasiloxane (MD2M) and dodecamethylpentasiloxane …
Ultra high performance liquid chromatography-time-of-flight high resolution mass spectrometry in the analysis of hexabromocyclododecane diastereomers…
2014
An efficient ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)-time-of-flight high resolution mass spectrometry (TOF-HRMS) method was elaborated for the determination of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) diastereomers in fish samples and compared against UHPLC-Orbitrap-HRMS and UHPLC-triple quadrupole (QqQ) tandem MS (MS/MS) techniques. The TOF-HRMS analyzer was operated at high resolution (>10000 full width at half maximum (FWHM)) with scanning the m/z range from 600 to 700, to achieve picogram quantitation limits. The effects of various operational parameters on the instrumental response were systematically investigated. Evaluation of the influence of sample clean-up procedure steps on sig…
Use of radiation sources with mercury isotopes for real-time highly sensitive and selective benzene determination in air and natural gas by different…
2015
A new analytical portable system is proposed for the direct determination of benzene vapor in the ambient air and natural gas, using differential absorption spectrometry with the direct Zeeman effect and innovative radiation sources: capillary mercury lamps with different isotopic compositions ((196)Hg, (198)Hg, (202)Hg, (204)Hg, and natural isotopic mixture). Resonance emission of mercury at a wavelength of 254 nm is used as probing radiation. The differential cross section of benzene absorption in dependence on wavelength is determined by scanning of magnetic field. It is found that the sensitivity of benzene detection is enhanced three times using lamp with the mercury isotope (204)Hg in…
Production and detection of atomic hexadecapole at Earth's magnetic field
2007
Anisotropy of atomic states is characterized by population differences and coherences between Zeeman sublevels. It can be efficiently created and probed via resonant interactions with light, the technique which is at the heart of modern atomic clocks and magnetometers. Recently, nonlinear magneto-optical techniques have been developed for selective production and detection of higher polarization moments, hexadecapole and hexacontatetrapole, in the ground states of the alkali atoms. Extension of these techniques into the range of geomagnetic fields is important for practical applications. This is because hexadecapole polarization corresponding to the $\Delta M=4$ Zeeman coherence, with maxim…
Antibiotic Resistance of Gram Negatives isolates from loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the central Mediterranean Sea
2009
Previous studies on fish and marine mammals support the hypothesis that marine species harbor antibiotic resistance and therefore may serve as reservoirs for anti biotic-resistance genetic determinants. The aim of this study was to assess the resistance to antimicrobial agents of Gram negative strains isolated from loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta). Oral and cloacal swabs from 19 live-stranded loggerhead sea turtles, with hooks fixed into the gut, were analyzed. The antimicrobial resistance of the isolates to 31 antibiotics was assessed using the disk-diffusion method. Conventional biochemical tests identified Citrobacter spp., Proteus spp., Enterobacter spp., Escherichia spp., Provi…
Science Advances
2019
River ecosystems receive and process vast quantities of terrestrial organic carbon, the fate of which depends strongly on microbial activity. Variation in and controls of processing rates, however, are poorly characterized at the global scale. In response, we used a peer-sourced research network and a highly standardized carbon processing assay to conduct a global-scale field experiment in greater than 1000 river and riparian sites. We found that Earth’s biomes have distinct carbon processing signatures. Slow processing is evident across latitudes, whereas rapid rates are restricted to lower latitudes. Both the mean rate and variability decline with latitude, suggesting temperature constrai…
Assessing the influence of confounding biological factors when estimating bioaccumulation of PCBs with passive samplers in aquatic ecosystems
2017
Passive samplers are promising surrogates for organisms, mimicking bioaccumulation. However, several biological characteristics disturb the passive partitioning process in organisms by accelerating or restraining bioaccumulation, resulting in species-specific body residues of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs). In addition to site-specific characteristics and HOC concentrations, age, sex, diet, biotransformation capability and habitat-specific characteristics may affect body residues. Two passive sampler types, polyethylene (PE) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were deployed in a PCB-contaminated freshwater lake water and sediment, respectively, to assess their bioaccumulation predictio…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and trace metal contamination of coastal sediment and biota from Togo
2011
The state of contamination of tropical environments, particularly in Africa, remains a relatively under explored subject. Here, we determined polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and trace metal concentrations in coastal sediment and biota samples (fish and mussels) from Togo (West Africa). In the sediments, the ∑21 PAH concentrations ranged from4 ng g(-1) to 257 ng g(-1), averaging 92 ng g(-1). Concentration ratios of low molecular weight PAHs (2-3 rings) versus high molecular weight PAHs (≥4 rings) were always lower than 1 (ranging from 0.08 to 0.46) indicating that high molecular weight PAHs were dominant in all sediment samples, and that PAHs originated mainly from anthropogenic combus…