Higher Drought Sensitivity of Autumn Photosynthetic Phenology in Planted Forests Than in Natural Forests of Tropical and Subtropical China.

Severe droughts advance autumn phenology, reducing terrestrial ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration. Approximately 25% of China's tropical/subtropical forests are planted for climate mitigation, yet differences in drought sensitivity of autumn phenology between planted and natural forests remain unclear. In this study, we used four phenological fitting methods to extract end-of-photosynthetic-growing-season (EOPS) dates in China's tropical/subtropical forests over the period 2001-2020, and employed ridge regression to assess the difference in response of EOPS to drought (the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index, SPEI) between natural and planted forests.

Microplastic-Derived Carbon Emissions: From Granular Carbon to Dissolved Organic Carbon and Carbon Dioxide under Ultraviolet Radiation.

As a hydrocarbon polymer, microplastics (MPs) consisted of abundant carbon. Previous studies mostly focused on the surface degradation of MPs and the release of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) during aging processes, while the information about MP-derived carbon emission from granular carbon (GC) to DOC and carbon dioxide (CO) is limited. This study examined the dynamic changes in MP carbon from GC loss to the formation of DOC and CO by selecting polystyrene (PS) and polybutylene succinate (PBS) as representative traditional and biodegradable MPs under ultraviolet (UV) radiation and mechanical abrasion.

Stabilizing mechanisms enable dioecious trees to maintain synchrony in spring budburst under climate warming.

Climate change could reduce dioecious plant fitness if the phenology of males and females responds differently to temperature. However, the extent to which spring phenological responses to climate differ between sexes in wind-pollinated dioecious trees remains poorly understood. Here, we combined ground observations with climate-controlled experiments to investigate sexual differences in spring budburst in Ginkgo biloba, Fraxinus chinensis, and Eucommia ulmoides.

Uncovering Mitochondrial Defects Induced by Chemicals: A Case Study of Low-Dose Medium-Chain Chlorinated Paraffin Exposure.

Given the susceptibility of mitochondria to environmental pollutants, mitochondrial defects are critical end points for chemical safety evaluation. In this study, we present a comprehensive strategy for assessing mitochondrial toxicity, exemplified through a case study on medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs, CHCl with 14-17 carbon atoms), one of the most abundant organic pollutants in the human body. Our results demonstrate that MCCP exposure at levels commonly found in humans significantly reduces cellular ATP content by impairing mitochondrial respiration rather than glycolysis.

Apical effects of simulated maternal exposure of salmonid fishes to novel and typical per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous in the environment and have been detected in tissues of wildlife and humans. While new chemicals are continually being added to the PFAS category, information on mechanisms and thresholds for adverse effects of these novel contaminants are often limited. To explore potential adverse effects on fishes caused by maternal exposure, five PFAS, perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS), GenX, perfluorooctanoic acid, and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), were deposited in oocytes of two salmonid species, Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), before fertilization.

Tree species composition governs urban phenological responses to warming.

Urban environments are typically warmer than surrounding rural areas, providing a unique setting for studying phenological responses to climate warming. Phenological differences between urban and rural trees are driven by local climate and species composition. Yet, the extent to which species composition influences phenological responses to urbanization remains poorly understood.

Incorporating Drought Thresholds Improves Model Predictions of Autumn Phenology in Tropical and Subtropical Forests.

Drought dramatically influences vegetation phenology, thereby impacting terrestrial carbon and water cycles. However, the mechanisms by which drought drives changes in autumn phenology remain unclear, hindering the accurate simulation of these processes in phenology models. In this study, we employed ridge regression analysis to quantify the dynamic effects of intensifying drought on the end-of-photosynthetic-growing-season (EOPS) and identified the drought threshold at which the vegetation's response to drought shifts.

High-throughput protein target mapping enables accelerated bioactivity discovery for ToxCast and PFAS compounds.

Chemical pollution is a global threat to human health, yet the toxicity mechanism of most contaminants remains unknown. Here, we applied an ultrahigh-throughput affinity-selection mass spectrometry (AS-MS) platform to systematically identify protein targets of prioritized chemical contaminants. After benchmarking the platform, we screened 50 human proteins against 481 prioritized chemicals, including 446 ToxCast chemicals and 35 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Interactions of erythromycin and an antibiotic mixture with the gut microbiome of juvenile rainbow trout.

Erythromycin (ERY) is a commonly used antibiotic found in wastewater effluents and the environment globally. Due to the bioactivity by which they kill and prevent bacterial growth, ERY and other antibiotics may have significant unwanted impacts on the gut microbiome of fishes. The overall objective of this project was to assess effects on the gut microbiome in response to exposure to ERY alone or in a mixture with other common antibiotics, which was accomplished in two experiments.

An abundant ginger compound furanodienone alleviates gut inflammation via the xenobiotic nuclear receptor PXR in mice.

The literature documenting the value of drug-like molecules found in natural products is vast. Although many dietary and herbal remedies have been found to be effective for treating intestinal inflammation, the identification of their active components has lagged behind. In this study, we find that a major ginger component, furanodienone (FDN), is a selective pregnane X receptor (PXR) ligand with agonistic transcriptional outcomes.

Ligand interaction landscape of transcription factors and essential enzymes in E. coli.

Knowledge of protein-metabolite interactions can enhance mechanistic understanding and chemical probing of biochemical processes, but the discovery of endogenous ligands remains challenging. Here, we combined rapid affinity purification with precision mass spectrometry and high-resolution molecular docking to precisely map the physical associations of 296 chemically diverse small-molecule metabolite ligands with 69 distinct essential enzymes and 45 transcription factors in the gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli. We then conducted systematic metabolic pathway integration, pan-microbial evolutionary projections, and independent in-depth biophysical characterization experiments to define the functional significance of ligand interfaces.

Unexpected increase in microalgal removal of doxylamine induced by bicarbonate addition: synergistic chem-/bio-degradation mechanisms.

Microalgae-based approaches serve as promising methods for the remediation of pharmaceutical contaminants (PCs) compared to conventional wastewater treatment processes. However, how to decrease hydraulic retention times of the microalgal system currently has been one of the main bottlenecks. This study constructed an unexpected synergistic extra-chemical/intra-biological degradation system by adding 5.

Hydroxyl radical oxidation of chemical contaminants on indoor surfaces and dust.

Humans are widely exposed to semivolatile organic contaminants in indoor environments. Many contaminants have long lifetimes following partitioning to the large surface reservoirs present indoors, which leads to long exposure times to gas-phase oxidants and multiphase chemistry. Studies have shown selective multiphase oxidation of organics on indoor surfaces, but the presence of hydroxyl radicals with nonselective reactivity and evidence of multiphase OH radical reactivity toward common indoor contaminants indicates that there may be additional unknown transformation chemistry indoors.

Simultaneous removal of chlorobenzene and Cr(VI) from groundwater using microbial fuel cell with low-cost Si modified ferrihydrite electrodes.

Aromatic chlorinated compounds and Cr(VI) in groundwater pose significant challenges due to their resistance. This study explores microbial fuel cells using low-cost Si-modified ferrihydrite (SiFh) electrodes for simultaneous chlorobenzene and Cr(VI) removal. The voltage output of MFC assembled with SiFh modified electrode was approximately 1.

Threshold and interaction effects of environmental variables affecting the spatial distribution of Pb.

Understanding the spatial distribution of soil Pb and its potential influence mechanism is significant for controlling Pb pollution in tea plantations and guaranteeing food safety. The linear and nonlinear relationships between Pb and environmental variables have been widely studied, but the threshold and interaction effects of its environmental variables are often neglected. In this study, 81 tea plantation soils were collected and determined the thresholds and interaction effects of environmental variables on Pb through the GBDT model.

Construction of imine-hydrazone dual linkage covalent organic frameworks.

The development of dual linkage covalent organic frameworks (DL-COFs) is fundamentally important for creating diversified structures and functions. Herein, imine-hydrazone DL-COFs were synthesized for the first time. Three novel imine-hydrazone DL-COFs have been constructed with bifunctional molecule 4-amino-2-methoxybenzohydrazide as the key building block imine and hydrazone condensations simultaneously.

Distribution characteristics and integrated ecological risks evaluation modelling of microplastics and heavy metals in geological high background soil.

The microplastics (MPs), a novel pollutant, and heavy metals (HMs) significantly affect soil ecology. The study investigated HMs and MPs in Qianxi's high geological background soil, established a model for risk evaluation with MPs types and shapes, and proposed a two-dimensional comprehensive index model for MPs-HMs combined pollution and risk evaluation criterion. The results revealed a high soil Cd concentration, with a mean value of 0.

Identification of Hydrocarbon Sulfonates as Previously Overlooked Transthyretin Ligands in the Environment.

Incidences of thyroid disease, which has long been hypothesized to be partially caused by exposure to thyroid hormone disrupting chemicals (TDCs), have rapidly increased in recent years. However, known TDCs can only explain a small portion (∼1%) of human transthyretin (hTTR) binding activities in environmental samples, indicating the existence of unknown hTTR ligands. In this study, we aimed to identify the major environmental hTTR ligands by employing protein ffinity urification with ontargeted nalysis (APNA).

Migration Patterns and Potential Risk Assessment of Trace Elements in the Soil-Plant System in the Production Area of the Chinese Medicinal Herb Hemsl.

Hemsl. holds a prominent place among Chinese medicinal herbs. Assessing the soil-plant system of its origin is crucial for ensuring medication safety.

Multiphase Ozonolysis of Bisphenol A: Chemical Transformations on Surfaces in the Environment.

High global plastic production volumes have led to the widespread presence of bisphenol compounds in human living and working environments. The most common bisphenol, bisphenol A (BPA), despite being endocrine disruptive and estrogenic, is still not fully banned worldwide, leading to continued human exposure via particles in air, dust, and surfaces in both outdoor and indoor environments. While its abundance is well documented, few studies have addressed the chemical transformations of BPA, the properties of its reactive products, and their toxicity.

Recent developments of hydroxamic acid hybrids as potential anti-breast cancer agents.

Histone deacetylase inhibitors not only possess favorable effects on modulating tumor microenvironment and host immune cells but also can reactivate the genes silenced due to deacetylation and chromatin condensation. Hydroxamic acid hybrids as promising histone deacetylase inhibitors have the potential to address drug resistance and reduce severe side effects associated with a single drug molecule due to their capacity to simultaneously modulate multiple targets in cancer cells. Accordingly, rational design of hydroxamic acid hybrids may provide valuable therapeutic interventions for the treatment of breast cancer.

Screening of Indoor Transformation Products of Organophosphates and Organophosphites with an in Silico Spectral Database.

Numerous transformation products are formed indoors, but they are outside the scope of current chemical databases. In this study, an in silico spectral database was established to screen previously unknown indoor transformation products of organophosphorus compounds (OPCs). An R package was developed that incorporated four indoor reactions to predict the transformation products of 712 seed OPCs.

Poleward shifts in the maximum of spring phenological responsiveness of Ginkgo biloba to temperature in China.

Global warming is advancing the timing of spring leaf-out in temperate and boreal plants, affecting biological interactions and global biogeochemical cycles. However, spatial variation in spring phenological responsiveness to climate change within species remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated variation in the responsiveness of spring phenology to temperature (RSP; days to leaf-out at a given temperature) in 2754 Ginkgo biloba twigs of trees distributed across subtropical and temperate regions in China from 24°N to 44°N.

Disclosing Environmental Ligands of L-FABP and PPARγ: Should We Re-evaluate the Chemical Safety of Hydrocarbon Surfactants?

Chemical contaminants can cause adverse effects by binding to the liver-fatty acid binding protein (L-FABP) and peroxisome proliferator-activated nuclear receptor γ (PPARγ), which are vital in lipid metabolism. However, the presence of numerous compounds in the environment has hindered the identification of their ligands, and thus only a small portion have been discovered to date. In this study, protein ffinity urification with ontargeted nalysis (APNA) was employed to identify the ligands of L-FABP and PPARγ in indoor dust and sewage sludge.